Diamond City BlockOut
by Yorobot
Summary: Wario puts a lock-out on Warioware, and all employees go back to their lives. However, an unknown guy puts a giant cylinder around the city, trapping its inhabitants. How will the citizens defeat the guy behind all that? Story halfway through! Comment!
1. That Night

Diamond City Block-Out

Complete synopsis: Something (or someone) has entirely blocked all of Diamond City`s exits. The Wario crew is entirely divided because of Wario`s greatest mistake. Who is behind all that? Will Wario get his team back, or will they all rally on the enemy`s side?

Warning: story contains major recurring jokes, and maybe at the expenses of your favorite characters. Don`t like your hero to be laughed at, don`t read (this is especially for Cricket fans, he`ll suffer a lot).

Chapter 1: That Night…

Wario smashed the table with his left hand.

-WHERE ARE THE MICROGAMES??? We`re under production rate now, I wanted to take out a new game in the following month but now it`s impossible!

The fifteen-or-so microgame makers had a low face. When Wario was angry, nothing was to be answered. He could easily be offensive toward his friends. Well, if they were friends. But they`re not, and thus it`s even worse. The Warioware reunions were always filled with anger from Wario, and by the others who just thought about it. Wario was a hero, sure, but he was still a jerk!

-Um… I`m sorry Wario, Mona said, but I had to deliver pizzas yesterday, I didn`t have time.

-And me, 9-Volt said, I`m caught on a very difficult game, and I`m unable of continuing it. There is no walkthrough on the Internet, and it`s freaking difficult too!

-Me, I am on a tourney around our country for a dance-off contest! Jimmy said. My family supports me everywhere, so we can`t make more microgames at this time.

Four or five other producers gave excuses about their microgames not being made, and Wario burst into a fit of anger nobody has ever seen before.

-You all suck! I can`t remember why I already got you as working partners for the Warioware series! I can`t think about that! I don`t want to see you anymore! Go away! Leave the city! Go do what you freaking want to do!

Wario fell on the floor, slamming it with his fists while crying like a baby or a young kid. The workers left all on their sides. 9-Volt left to his own house with 18-Volt, Kat and Ana took back their normal ninja lives. All the others went back to their own lives BEFORE Warioware.

The night fell. Nobody noticed it. They were all busy with their own lives. Mostly sleeping. Two boys, 9-Volt and 18-Volt, were still up at midnight, still playing the game. However, everyone else was sleeping. Actually, maybe not. Mona, in the darkness of her room, had stuck Wario`s picture on a dart game and was aiming for the nose. Young Cricket, in the Dojo, was decapitating a stuffed puppet looking like Wario.

However, nothing was going to be normal that night. Since that night was the beginning of an adventure. One of the greatest adventures ever. A thousand of helicopters appeared, bringing each a solid brick block. They all placed them around Diamond City. Each block was one meter high, wide, and large. The helicopters disposed them in a circle all around the city, left and came back with more blocks. After an hour only, the wall being made was too high to climb with usual ways. At four o`clock, the wall was finished, creating some kind of cylindrical barrier all around the city. It must have measured about a hundred meters high. It was not blocking the sun; however, all communication lines were cut from the other cities. Finally, the helicopters all came with a strange liquid in them, and sprayed it over the blocks to make them impossible to climb. The only free spot, on the top, got covered by a large piece of glass.

***

-I won again! 9-Volt said, throwing his controller in the air and catching it back. Sorry 18-Volt, you`re the loser tonight.

-Word… 18-Volt muttered.

Sometimes he just wanted to be able to say something else.

-Anyway, look at the hour. It`s four thirty in the morning. Maybe you should go sleep a little.

18-Volt left the house, moving on to his own house, and not looking where he was going. He smashed on a wall, and looked up.

-Word?

The wall was so high, it was incredible. 18-Volt ran away to 9-Volt`s house.

-What`s the problem, 18-Volt?

18-Volt brought him out, and 9-Volt saw the immense brick wall. The sunlight hadn`t even risen, everything was dark.

-Wow… it looks exactly like the part in my game where we`re blocked! Let me tell you, pal, if we don`t find a way to get out of here, we`re doomed.

***

Kat woke up. She always had her morning routine: eat a small breakfast, and then going outside to walk Don and Shadow. Her sister was always waking up an hour later than her; she never knew why. Kat ate a toast with an apple, and looked at the hour. Six past five. She called Shadow and Don by whistling. The dog and the sparrow arrived rapidly. Then, Kat pushed the door. While usually the sun should have risen a little, it was still completely dark everywhere. And Kat saw also why… the enormous wall was blocking the sun from passing! She entered back, and woke up Ana.

-It`s still dark, I want to sleep more…

-No time for sleeping! We gotta save the city!

Ana heard this, and jumped out of bed.

-You should have said it first!

The two preschool ninjas took their weapons, and prepared destroying the first brick block they would see. They didn`t have to go look very far; there was one really near their house. They threw their shurikens, used their nunchakus, but the wall showed no sign of weakness.

-Time for katanas, eh? Ana asked.

The two girls took out their katanas, and smashed repetitively the block. However, no weapon proved to be useful. Kat approached the wall and touched it.

-It`s sticky. It is covered with a weird liquid. I don`t quite know what it is… we should go ask Orbulon. Maybe it`s from outer space…

***

Red landed on a chair. Ashley just had thrown him through the room, when he brought her the wrong ingredient for her newest potion discovery.

-I need red eyes, no bat eyes!

-Sorry, I was listening music on my new player, Red said. I didn`t get exactly what you said.

-Well, if you continue like that, I`ll put the earphones out of your ears and use your music player in my next spell. Got it?

-Don`t do that, Ashley! I paid it with money I made thanks to Mona!

-Ah, come on. Now we have to go outside a little. I`ll calm down. What time is it, Red?

-It`s seven. Sun should be risen, but it`s still dark outside!

Ashley went outside her mansion, and noticed it was really dark everywhere.

-Great. A new problem now.

-What`s happening here? Red asked.

-Look around, you`ll guess it all by yourself, Ashley simply answered.

Red looked a little, and then noticed the tall walls surrounding Diamond City.

-What the… these walls block the sunshine! And thus, it`s dark for a longer time now.

-Not only that, Ashley continued. When the sun will be high enough, it`ll pass over the city, only lighting a part after the other. At noon, the entire city will be lit, and back at 5 at night everything will be black again.

-Okay… And what`s wrong about it with you, Ashley? You like darkness!

-Yes, but it`s not the same thing for everyone in town… Heh. Chaos is always fun.

***

Dr Crygor put back the telescope on the table.

-It`s exactly what I thought!

The two cab drivers Dribble and Spitz were in the same room, sitting on a couch.

-So, what`s da problem?

-All our friends are blocked in town. I must go look up there. Maybe, if we`re lucky, we can enter and rescue them with the cab…

-Good idea doc! Spitz said happily.

The three characters embarked in the cab, and flew away toward the giant cylinder of blocks. Mike was left in the lab, when he saw them leaving. Mike showed outside and agitated his arms around.

-You forgot me!

The cab landed, however, not in the city, but above it. Dr. Crygor walked on the invisible surface.

-It`s a mighty piece of glass! It`s covering the city, and officially blocking all exits!

-Is it breakable?

-I think not, Dr. Crygor answered. It`s very big, and it`s bullet-proof. It is hardly breakable. I`ll need everything possible to break that glass – and still, I don`t think it`s breakable.

Dribble moved to the side of the cylinder and looked down.

-Whaa, that`s freaking high!

However, Dribble noticed the wall was sticky. He stuck his finger in it, and brought a little piece of liquid to Crygor.

-Think you can analyze that?

Crygor took it in a little box, and entered the back seat of the cab. Dribble took the driver`s seat and Spitz, the passenger one. Crygor talked during the entire trip back to the lab.

-I studied the glass. It`s shaped like a giant magnifier. You know what happens when, during sunlight, you use a magnifier to reflect the sun`s rays?

-Of course! Spitz answered, after thinking for a few seconds. What happens, exactly?

-The object targeted by the magnifier catches fire, and it slowly burns. That means that when sunlight will arrive, the town will burn. First a small part, then a bigger part, and at noon, the entire city will be burning! And because of the glass preventing any rain, nothing can stop it!

In next episode: More characters will face off the second threat of the trap: the burning part! Will they face the heat or will they survive? Well, they`ll survive. But will they finally find a way to get out?


	2. Killer Heat

I don`t own the characters, not the many details of this fanfic. I make no money off it. Why would I anyway?

Chapter 2: Killer Heat

-Master Mantis, what do you see in your crystal ball about the giant wall?

-I don`t know, the barrier formed by bricks blocks all spiritual messages from coming and entering my ball. In other terms, it doesn`t work because of that wall.

-Do you think I can climb it? Young Cricket asked.

-Not at all, it is covered with a fluid sticky but which also prevents anyone from climbing. Try it.

Young Cricket put his fingers on the crack between two blocks, and tried climbing. At a few meters only, he fell down on the head. A mega bruise appeared on his head, and tears rolled down his cheeks.

-Bobo…

-That is exactly what I meant, Young Cricket. Even if you get weapons, you will be unable of climbing the wall. However, I really fear the worse is coming… See? It`s sunlight. Did you notice it was hotter than usual, since it is only 10 in the morning?

-Yes, it`s hot like at noon… that`s really weird, sensei.

-It`s because the people who trapped us here have also put a large glass circle on top of the block-made tower. Even if you found a way to climb the wall, you would get stuck on top, with the glass which blocks our way to freedom. However, our enemies are certainly smarter than that: if they want to make us suffer, we`ll pass through a lot of problems…

***

Mike was in a dark room. He was not in the laboratory anymore. He was in... A helicopter. Yes, that was it. A helicopter. Someone had robot-napped him. And there was a dark figure sitting on a chair in front of him.

-Hello, robot, the man said.

-Who are you? Mike asked.

-Oh, I`m your enemy… for now. Join our group and you`ll get part of the reward.

-Wait a second… first, tell me who you are.

-I`m nobody important. I`m just here for a little affair.

The voice was dark, monotone, like if it was not really alive.

-I know Wario very well, I know he hates his employees, and you`re one of them. Thus, he never paid you. Well, the goal here is to force him. Anyway, whatever choice you make, you`ll join.

-Then, no. My only master is Dr. Crygor.

When Mike finished his sentence, a large machine took him by the head and brought him on another chair, with quite a strange helmet attached on top.

-This special chair will change your circuits so you will only obey me. You`ll become my metal soldier…

Mike tried to resist, however all his memory got erased and replaced by a new one.

***

Mona was looking at the Mona Pizza building, burning to ashes because of the sun.

-We gotta do something! Call the firemen!

-I already did that, Joe said. But they`re not really far, and the casern too is burning. We must do everything by ourselves.

Mona evaluated he situation.

-If our building burns, we`ll lose everything! Well, at least it`s got advantages…

The Pizza Dinosaur building too was burning. The Dino Guys were outside, looking at their lifetime work, which was disappearing in a trail of black smoke. The Dino Leader approached Mona and Joe.

-Listen. I don`t know what you have been doing, but you gotta help us!

-Why? You tried stealing my job with your giant dino machine, you took my friends hostage with your giga chicken, now you are planning to use us as helpers and then leave us by ourselves later? Mona deducted.

-Not really, I just thought that we could help each other for once. The situation is critical. For our two establishments.

-Then, help finding a hose, we`ll branch it to a water sport and wipe out the fire. I don`t know, be more creative! Things can`t always be arranged with robots!

***

Every place was burning at noon. It was a terribly hot temperature. The park was turned into a large field of ashes. It was terrible. Orbulon, who was sleeping in a hotel when the walls got placed, was stuck there too. Sure, he was an alien, but he could not help them with his piggy ship. It was blocked in the cylinder too, after a far-from-successful landing. And it would be unable to break the glass as well. Orbulon had understood everything as soon as he noticed. He guessed, by deduction, who the enemy was. However, nobody would let him say it. Why? Simply because everyone was busy refreshing the burning town with water. Orbulon had even guessed a way to get out, but once again, people were too busy.

With an IQ of 300, Orbulon was able to take everything he knew about his friends, including their enemies. Of course, since everyone was trapped in town, it couldn`t have been any of them. Also, by calculating the large amount of material needed to build this cylindrical structure, it couldn`t have been any little enemy from an unknown game. The use of earthly materiel (glass, bricks) also proved that the enemy was not an extraterrestrial, or else the structure would be made in metal and the glass would be replaced by any matter unknown to humans but which serves the same purpose as glass, only for aliens. Finally, he ran through his friends` enemies and deleted the ones who couldn`t accomplish any upper task. He ended up with only three culprits, and from these, and because he had learned about them, he guessed which one it was. But even if he would say it, nobody would believe him. After all, that guy has other things to do…

But the fact was there. There is no way someone would listen to him… Orbulon looked through his hotel room, cooling down his bldy temperature like a salamander to be able to live despite the fire.

***

Penny Crygor had difficulties believing everything that was happening. She was trapped in town. The night these giant walls appeared, she was working in the school`s laboratory. She was creating a new kind of helmet. However, she once needed to go get some stuff at her grandpa`s lab, but the path was blocked everywhere.

To cope with this, she was creating a backpack with integrated reactor. She would then try and break the glass with a tiny but powerful laser. She sure would try it, but it was too dangerous during sunlight. Metal is quite dangerous when heated. And she didn`t want to get her back burned by the reactor. Plus, overheat of a reactor might make it explode. It was better to try it at night. The glass covering the cylinder would have cooled off then.

To relax, Penny looked around the city with a telescope. Nothing was relaxing in this however, because the city was burning. She was working on her mini-laser, when three girls entered the laboratory: Mona, Ashley and Kat.

-Penny, you gotta help us! Mona cried.

-We`re in really big trouble, and only you can help us with your big brain, Kat continued.

-Yeah, not that I dislike seeing such chaos, the witch continued, but when it also touches my mansion it`s purely terrible. Come on, help us.

-I`m sorry, friends, Penny said, but I can`t. I`m preparing a little something, but I don`t know if it will be okay… We would need someone to have the guts to wear a reactor in a backpack and to go cut out a piece of glass with a laser, then bring this piece to the ground, and redo that as much as necessary…

-I know who can help us! Mona shouted.

To be continued: The unknown enemy makes more victims, taking control of them. The crazy plan made up by the four girls begins, however it proves to be useless. Finally, Wario laments in his room, trying to find a solution to all his problems – the main one being: TRACKING AND KILLING THE GUY WHO`S DESTROYING HIS CITY! `Cause it can`t be a girl… or is it?

Author`s note: I`m from Quebec, and I know many words you will probably never hear anywhere else. "Bobo" means "bruise", and it`s what young kids say. Also, our huge number of swears had better not be heard by anyone. However, since Cricket knows many languages and traveled around the world with his sensei, he might have heard them.


	3. Go Cricket Go!

I don`t own the characters. I really hate owning nothing at all.

Chapter 3: Go, Cricket, Go!

Jimmy was pestering against the wall.

-Goddamn wall! `Cause of it, I can`t travel around the country!

-Calm down, bro, James said. You can still practice on the DDR machine in Champion Mode.

-Yeah, you`re the only one who can beat any level on that difficulty. Nobody else can, Jamie, Jimmy`s sister, said. Come in and show us your talent.

Jimmy entered in the arcade, and placed his feet on the left and right pads of the DDR machine. He selected the Champion Difficulty from the menu. That machine was special: only two existed, and they were in Diamond City`s Arcade. When Jimmy selected the Champion difficulty, the panels of the dance mat unfolded, revealing four more buttons to put the foot on. There were now eight arrows, the four normal ones and four diagonal arrows. Jimmy was about to choose a music, when someone entered the place.

It was someone we knew better for his singing… Mike! However, something in his face had changed. He looked scarier. Mike pointed at Jimmy with his left index and screamed:

-I defy you on Champion Difficulty!

Jimmy looked at Mike while retaining his laugh.

-You? But you`re just good for singing! How could you beat me?

-People always say a demonstration is better than explanation…

-Fine, Jimmy answered. But don`t cry if you lose!

"Hah, I`ll win easily," Jimmy thought. "It`s a robot, so his articulations aren`t as good as a human`s. And he`s a karaoke robot too, not a dance bot. I`ll beat him in little time."

Mike took place beside Jimmy, and chose the Champion Mode. The panels opened.

-Which song do you want? Jimmy asked. Your own theme, Mona Pizza or Ashley`s Theme? Maybe you prefer a song from a known rapper or the bumblebee classical song…

Mike scrolled and read the list of songs and finally found something that Jimmy would not be able to win.

-I`ll take "Forest Rawest", the song based on Mario`s first RPG. It packs quite a rhythm in some places.

Jimmy could not believe it… Forest Rawest was the most difficult song. It was not easy on normal or hard difficulty, was very rough at expert, but was practically impossible at Champion difficulty. Even for Jimmy.

(By the way, here is a link to Forest Rawest: http:// ww /watch? v=Ev B-lIcHHPQ &feature=rela ted just undo the spaces.)

-Fine, if you want to lose, Jimmy simply said. Good luck.

-I don`t need luck with that dance microprocessor.

The song started easy, with the simple rhythm. Once at the first chorus, Jimmy and Mike had the same exact score, i.e. the best score up to that part. Then the rapping part (with Exor and Geno) already showed to be a lot more difficult for Jimmy. The beat was faster, and heat was building because whatever Jimmy was doing, Mike seemed to be doing it better!

Then came Mario`s rapping part. THAT was the reason why that song was impossible. This part was so fast that nobody could stand a chance at Expert, so imagine at Champion! The beat was so speedy that Jimmy had trouble following the notes on the screen. Mike, on his side, was still relax, just as if he`d been doing that all his life long. In the next part, there were two different dialogues. This part too was difficult, since each leg had its own dialogue, and it became very hard for Jimmy to follow. Peach`s singing segment was truly easy for Mike, but Jimmy was getting tired. That`s it! There was only the chorus for a last time and Jimmy would have won! However, near the end, he felt like his right leg was on fire. He could not stop or else he would lose! So he continued. The pain was getting louder and louder. Finally, Jimmy screamed in pain, falling on the other side. It was only missing two seconds to the song… and the best dancer in town ultimately lost.

When the scores showed up, Mike had over 5000 points over Jimmy`s. Mike approached his opponent.

-Us robots don`t feel pain. A machine can beat a human. I just proved that. Now, get out of my way, Jimmy.

Jimmy rolled out of the way, letting Mike pass. Mike went out of the arcade but came back in seconds later, and said:

-My new master will kill you all!

Mike then left the Thang Family bring Jimmy back to their house.

***

-Why? But why? Was screaming Wario, while blowing his red nose in a tissue.

He didn`t know what was happening. The city had been blocked out; he had made a lock-out on his enterprise, now everything was lost. He was losing all his money. He knew one thing however; all clues were there to help discover the culprit behind all this. Wario had a super plan.

He would use everything he knows to save his employees. Then they would stop hating him! But how would he do that? Oh yeah, right! He too had his own secret weapons! Now he must find a way to reach his opponent…

***

9-Volt was walking around, searching for a way to complete that game he was playing since days. He was still blocked on the same spot. He had played all other game slots to find clues in his game, but he always ended up blocked on the same spot. He was outside.

Suddenly he saw a troop of people running. He ran by them and saw many familiar faces: Penny, Ashley, Kat. He ran beside them and asked:

-What`s happening?

-Penny has a plan for that glass up there. And we *pant* are running to go see the best person to go up there.

They were talking while running, so their speak was cut with breaths.

-Great, but who`s that *pant* person?

-It`s Young Cricket, you know, that guy learning weird *pant* martial arts in a dojo at the end of the town… Ashley said.

-Ah, that guy! Yeah, great idea! *pant* Anyway, what will be your plan?

-Penny has *pant* created a rocket backpack, and a really powerful *pant* laser. Cricket will have to go up there and cut a small *pant* part of glass. He`ll *pant* do that again *pant* every day, and *pant* we`ll be free!

9-Volt stopped running. He shouted "Thanks for the info!" and came back to his house.

He came back to sit in front of his house, pondering on the puzzle his game had offered him. However, a dark figure appeared.

-9-Volt, our master needs your help.

-What… the… You mean, the big boss who has done that entire block tower thing? Fine, I`ll challenge him to a videogame and I`ll beat him!

-No way, kiddo. The boss is a videogame master. But if you want to try, then present yourself in two days in front of your house. We`ll bring you to him.

The dark character revealed itself. It was… Mike! 9-Volt didn`t ask any question, and simply started getting prepared.

***

Kat was following the crowd of characters running toward Master Mantis` Dojo. They saw the imposing circular structure in front of them and doubled their running speed. The ones in front broke not to smash through the wall, but the ones behind didn`t slow down and smashed their backs. The crowd finally stopped when it hit the Dojo`s wall. Mona raised the right hand and knocked at the door. Master Mantis opened.

-Yes?

-Is Young Cricket there? Kat asked.

-Well, yes he is. However he is meditating in the relaxation room. All the pain caused by the recent events has still not disappeared.

-We must talk to him now! Ashley said.

-Sorry tenebrous girl, but that is impossible at the moment. Mind is disconnected from body when meditation is made. He shall not understand a thing. Unless any of you dares hitting his forehead, he will not answer.

-That will do, Kat finished, and the crowd ran to the relaxation room. There they found Young Cricket, floating in air. He still had the mega bruise from his previous attempt at climbing he wall. He had a serious expression on the face and his eyes were closed. His legs were crossed in front of him.

-Hey Cricket! Do you hear me? Kat asked.

Young Cricket was still floating; his face was still the same.

-Fine, I`ll have to do that then!

Kat punched Cricket hard on the head. That sure awakened him, because he immediately fell on the floor. The punch left a second mega bruise on Cricket`s forehead.

-Bobo… again.

-Hep, Young Cricket, Mona said after entering, we need your skills.

-My… skills?

-Yes, your skills! Because Penny Crygor here has a plan to free us from that cylinder of doom.

-However, it requires quite a hotheaded knucklehead to go head first into that adventure that may cause headaches, Penny said while doing puns with "head", telling Cricket to look up that second bruise on his head. And we sure don`t need an airhead.

-Go ahead, Cricket said.

-The plan is simple, Penny said. You will be wearing this backpack, which contains a reactor. You will fly up in the air and reach the plaque of glass covering the cylinder. Then, you will cut a small portion of it with this tiny laser, which is powerful enough to even cut metal, and you will bring back the glass piece here. You`ll continue the task until the hole is big enough so we can pass a flying machine through it. Then we will embark in a helicopter or something like that, and we`ll all leave the town.

-Okay… so I have to go up there, cut a piece, then go back down, then up, then down… it`s crazy!

-We`ve seen way weirder before this cylinder came circling around…

-I`m still not too sure about it, however…

-You`ll save hundreds of people! Or you`ll die trying, because the glass must be quite hot after the sun passes, so you`ll probably need a flashlight and do that during night. Also, if the reactor overheats, you`ll probably die…

-Well, you got me at "saving hundreds of people". I will go.

***

Some hours later, the happy crowd had reached the school`s laboratory, where Penny gave all required items to Cricket.

-Here is the reactor, you put it on like a backpack, you should also tie the front so that it doesn`t risks to fall off your back. Here is the flashlight, it`s super powerful so I don`t recommend pointing the light to your eyes, we don`t want you to get blind. Here`s the laser, it`s tiny but very powerful, so don`t cut yourself with it. I have also written a short list about dos and don'ts.

Cricket read the list. The main rule was "don`t show off even if you`re on cloud nine".

-What do you mean? Cricket asked Penny.

-Well, once you have the reactor on, you`ll really love the feeling of flying, but just in case our enemy had put cameras in the walls, if they see you flying around they`ll know what we are trying to do…

That night, the crowd joined in a large field where cows were eating herb. Cricket put on the backpack, and tied it on the front. He then was handed the flashlight and the laser by Penny. Master Mantis was there too, supporting his student.

-Prepare for liftoff, Cricket, Penny said. When you`re ready, just push the button on the left shoulder of the backpack, and you`ll go up.

A few seconds later, Cricket pushed the button. He lifted off, and suddenly felt himself light as a feather. Surprised by the new feeling, he wanted to feel more of it. He began gliding around, began looping, spun around, and flew like he had never flown before (and he had never flown before). After a few minutes, he remembered what he had to do. He flew up to the giant piece of glass, took the flashlight in his left hand and the laser in his right hand, and pushed the button on the laser. The tiny thing began cutting a pretty big piece of glass. It took about ten minutes, and the biggest problem for Cricket was to stay at the same spot while cutting and trying to resist the envy of flying around again. When the small piece of glass was cut, Cricket realized it was too heavy. If he were to go down with it, he would fall too fast, and he would die when reaching the ground. So he let go.

The piece fell down and caused a miniature earthquake on the field, far from the crowd. The cows that were eating herb around mooed of terror and ran away (anyway, there was no herb to eat anyway, it had burnt because of the sun!)

However, when Young Cricket went back, Penny came to see him.

-Idiot!

-What? I cut the piece of glass!

-Yes, but I had ordered you not to show off!

The shouts were stopped by Master Mantis, who brought his student away. There we could hear the loudest Japanese argument ever. While most of the words could not be understood, there were some words such as "baka-yaro" (stupid idiot), "gomen-yo sensei" (very sorry sensei) and "shimatta baka-ni!" (D`oh!)

On this last Japanese dialog, everyone went back to their house.

The next day, where there was supposed to be a tiny hole, we could see not only one, but two layers of glass! Cricket saw that and unleashed a series of swears from every country he went in.

Author`s note: Wow… he even threw in two or three Quebec swears! Anyway, the story gets complicated, but things wrap up from the fourth chapter. It will have around 10 chapters.


	4. Plan, Anyone?

I don`t own the characters, and I`m really not a good suing target. Go sue someone else. Got it, Madam Lisa Sue? (fictive name)

Chapter 4: Plan, Anyone?

Outside the giant cylinder, in Dr. Crygor`s lab, Dribble and Spitz were looking to the structure with a telescope.

"Ya know what? I think da enemy`s trapped them for real. Dey`re in real trouble."

"Well, my mastermind sure has found many ways to overpass the defenses and save everyone, sadly if we act, we will more than likely be attacked by the trappers. Nah, we can`t do a thing yet."

Spitz looked around.

"Hey Crygor, where`s that karaoke-loving robot?"

"Mike? I haven`t seen him in a while. Actually, since we returned here."

"Whattabout da liquid? Ya know, da one we got up there?"

"Oh, I have studied it, but my computer just told me about something I didn`t know about."

"You mean it`s foreign?"

"That indeed is. It`s Goomba blood. It`s a very sticky substance, however it loses its stickiness when it feels pressure and it becomes really solid, unbreakable.. That means it is impossible to climb the wall."

"Ya…" Dribble thought about it for a second. "Wait… Goomba blood? That must come from da Mushroom Kingdom. Remembah Spitz, we brought Wario there once o` twice when was trying ta get money."

"Goombas are from the Mushroom Kingdom? Then maybe it`s Bowser who has put the cylinder!" Spitz said.

"Hold your horses!" Crygor said. "Are you two talking about the mighty Mushroom Kingdom?"

"Ya…" Dribble said.

"Never heard of." Crygor said. His taxi-driving friends fell on the floor. "No, seriously, it`s a place only heard of in videogames, I think. And I`m too old to know about videogames. We should ask 9-Volt."

"Yes, but he`s caught in the cylinder!"

"Duh." Dr. Crygor slapped his palm on his forehead.

***

After his great failure, Young Cricket was always criticized by his mentor.

"It was a big mistake you`ve made, Cricket. To ensure you will not do it twice, you will learn to control yourself."

"I can control myself, sensei!"

"By seeing your loopings and your flying acrobatics of yesterday, it seems not."

"Okay. Guess what, sensei? I`ll try again. This time, I won`t do anything but my work!"

"Fine, Young Cricket. We shall see that."

And, that night, nobody was there to see Young Cricket. The martial artist had kept the flashlight, the reactor and the laser. The master and his student walked to the center of the large field.

"See, sensei, I`ll do it without showing off!"

Young Cricket pushed the button on his shoulder and lifted off the ground. He flew for a minute until he reached the large magnifier trapping the city, and up there he began his tough job of cutting piece after piece of glass. As soon as the pieces landed, they were shattered by Master Mantis` karate. After cutting a few more pieces, Young Cricket came back down.

"See? See? I did it, sensei!"

"Nope, your task is not accomplished yet. You really did this mission without showing off, however you still decided to do this on an impulse. You shall learn to control these impulses."  
"But… I succeeded! That`s unfair, sensei!"

"Oh, it actually is, Young Cricket. Impulses can lead people to their doom. If you had done this without anyone to save you if that "reactor" had exploded, your fall would have marked your end."

"Okay, I got it, sensei. Shimatta-baka-ni!"

***

The next day, the inhabitants of Diamond City saw that the glass was cut at many places. They were finally breathing new air! However, that peace would not last very long. A huge helicopter appeared over the glass, and it was carrying a giant, 100-feet flat two-sided television held by a rope. Mike appeared on the screen, apparently speaking his message from the helicopter.

"Hello Diamond City. I have terrible news to tell you. This night, someone has dared cutting the magnifier glass. The cameras inserted in the blocks` cracks have caught everything on video. The first time, we just put back the piece and left. However, this time, we shall add a complete new layer of glass.

Mona climbed on top of a building and shouted in a megaphone so that Mike, on the helicopter, would hear her.

"What happens, Mike? You are a friend! Why did you ally to the enemy?"

"Simply because the enemy is better! Beside my master, Wario is a nobody!"

Now the entire population of Diamond City was looking up.

Mona shouted again.

"But why are you helping him?"

"He`s the future of Diamond City! He wants to make his kingdom grow! He`s able to do whatever needed so that you never escape!"

The people down whispered.

The transmission was cut, and the rope holding the television was cut. The television fell to the ground, at a place where a huge crowd had gathered. The Diamond Citizens ran away to avoid getting hurt by that. Ten or so more helicopters arrived with a new magnifier, which they disposed perfectly over the cylinder. Then the helicopters left, just as if nothing had happened.

Cricket unleashed his greatest collection of swears from all around the world. (wow, he even swore in Quebecer!)

***

Mona was desperate at finding an answer. Wait a second… of course! Orbulon must know! After all, he has an IQ of 300, he must have guessed! Mona jumped on her motorcycle and drifted off to the motel. She parked her motorcycle, and entered the motel. She walked to the front desk and asked the man.

"Dunning, I would like to know in which room is the alien Orbulon."

Dunning looked through his papers, and finally found it.

"Yes, he is in room two hundred fifteen. It`s weird you`re asking; two preschool-age girls came in ten minutes ago, looking for the same person."

"Thanks mister." Mona rushed to the room 215.

"And of course, during only ten minutes I had enough time to lose the paper and…" Dunning continued talking alone.

Mona slammed the door open. Kat and Ana were in the room, threatening Orbulon with their ninja weapons.

"You WILL tell us what THIS is!" Ana said, motioning a cut with her katana. Kat showed a small box with a bit of pale-blue liquid.

Mona screamed. "Kat! Ana! Stop it!"

"Mona!" the two preschool girls screamed.

"Can you stop screaming?" Orbulon asked. "For the liquid, I don`t know what it is… for now. But there`s an analyzer in my piggy ship."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Ana asked. "That`s why we are caught here! We`re going bananas!"

"I noticed, earthling. Though I have indeed no idea what you mean b going bananas. Unless you are talking about the Xananabs, an extraterrestrial species…"

"Whatever," Mona asked. "You`re our only hope to discover who did it. So let`s go to the piggy ship!"

The batman theme plays as the three people and the alien rushed to the piggy ship. They passed in front of Dunning, who was still talking to himself. "And then we got that famous room which supposedly grants wishes and that alien went in it because he wanted to go back in space blah blah blah…"

***

Once in the piggy ship, Orbulon moved to a strange teleport-like thingy, and he put the glass on it. The computer analyzed the content, and something appeared on the computer screen.

"Goomba blood. Origin: Mushroom Kingdom. Species: Goomba. More information: Goombas are the weakest member of the Koopa Troop and the easiest enemies Mario has to defeat in any game he is in. Most Goombas swore allegiance to Bowser the Koopa King, however some live a good life in calm villages far from war or pain. The Goomba blood is a strange substance which is sticky when taken or played with, but which becomes very solid when pressured. Sunlight also hardens this matter, and it can stay hard for twenty-four hours before the effect wears off. This substance has no other side effect and is in no way related to the Monster blood, a substance which grows when in contact with sunlight or inside a person or animal`s body."

"OK, we got every information This confirms my thought," Orbulon said.

"What, you had guessed who it was?" Mona asked.

"Yes, I`m sure it is either Bowser or Mario. It can be Bowser so that he extends his own kingdom and he wants to make Wario pay for Peach`s rescue (see Super Mario 64 DS), but it can be Mario only for vengeance, in the same way Wario stole his castle many years ago (see Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins)."

Kat and Ana had printed the page with the information, and were fiddling with the computer. Kat placed herself on the teleport pad, and Ana pushed the button.

"Kat… NO FAMILY NAME – ERROR! ERROR! BROKEN! O SOLE MIO! YADDAYADDA! CAN`T FIGURE ANY LYRICS OUT! STEE! WAAAAAH!" And it exploded.

"Kat! Ana! What did you do? You just broke the machine!"

"Sorry Mona."

And Mona and the two girls left, leaving a poor Orbulon crying at his bad luck and at the fact that the damn machine had taken him a month to build despite his intelligence!

To be continued…

Author`s note: I know the story is jus getting repetitive, with all characters just having their part of the story, but it will soon start to unravel. This will eventually lead to a final battle with the mastermind behind the block-out (pun on lock-out! Haha!). But of course, there are still many plot details to be cleared… We already have a very important clue. Also, there will be guest appearances from other games.


	5. Reunions

I don`t own the series at all. Really too bad.

Chapter 5: Reunion

It was noon. Penny Crygor was looking at the burning city with a telescope in the school lab.

"I feel like déjà vu right now…"

And, at her surprise, Mona, Ashley and Kat once again entered the laboratory.

"Penny, reunion at the ancient locals of Warioware. All employees have to be there. We will decide of a plan." Mona told her.

"Fine, I`ll be there," Penny answered. "But I really can`t figure out everything that s happening right now. It looks more like a Subspace-Emissary-like plot than anything else."

"Can`t be Taboo, we would have seen more Game and Watches around," Ashley said, joking, but keeping her dark tone. "No, seriously, I love to see all chaos around, but it`s not chaotic enough."

"Anyway, it`s tonight at 9. We know almost everyone will be there. Only Wario never answered, and we all know Mike became an enemy."

"Apparently, Wario has ordered a dozen bottles of beer to his house," Mona said. "We suppose he`s drowning his pain in alcohol."

After that, the girls left the laboratory. Penny prepared herself for the meeting. Since she was caught there, she had made a mini-house in the gymnasium. At 8, she left the gymnasium and headed to the ancient locals of Warioware.

As promised, everyone was there at the meeting. The Thang family had borrowed a wheelchair for Jimmy. When 9 o`clock rang, Mona took the microphone and began the meeting. This time, they were not in a small meeting room but more in a festive, larger room, in which she had to use a mic.

"Everyone. We are going through a major crisis. We are disconnected from the rest of the world, we are caught in town, Wario is nowhere to be seen, and so we need to do the point on everything that had happened. As such, many of us have a little thing to tell us."

Jimmy tried going out of his chair, but as soon as he put the foot on ground, he felt the terrible pain and fell. His sis Jamie helped him climb back on his chair, and he rolled his chair to the front. There, Mona handed him the microphone and Jimmy told what he had to say.

"People, you know me as the greatest dancer of all time. However, I have been beaten by Mike, who probably has been erased his good memory and his singing replaced with dancing abilities. He`s really tough at dancing, he`s unbeatable. I don`t even know if I will be able to go back on a dance mat anymore. And it`s pretty hard to dance when you`re sitting in a wheelchair."

People whispered to each other.

"This proves Mike has really passed on the evil side. Now, to whoever would like to suggest something for help, I`ll hand the microphone."

9-Volt walked to the front, and Jimmy handed him the microphone, and then the dancer went back toward his family.

The young helmeted kid began talking. "Since the beginning of this adventure, I feel like we can complete the level. We won`t end up game over. But since you are not all good in videogames, I`ll talk more clearly. You know the game I have problems with? I bet the answer in that game is the answer to our problem. Maybe we`ll end up with the final boss fight… I suggest anyone interested in this to come to my house tomorrow, we will brainstorm. By the way, the game has a nearly identical plot where the character, Bill, has to escape a city without going noticed. Next!"

Ana and Kat, followed of Orbulon, came at the front.

"This alien here has discovered something very important. Talk, Orbulon."

The alien took the microphone and began talking.

"I discovered the sticky substance is Goomba blood. That means a character from the universe of Mario Bros is behind all that. You might think it`s Bowser, eh? BEEP! You`re wrong! No, the truth is worse than that; it`s Mario."

The mouths of many characters opened wide (and mostly 9-Volt`s), and Orbulon continued.

"It`s possible! Mario has everything to be the perfect culprit. He has encountered countless Goombas, he`s a major enemy of Wario, and he has a relation with the blocks used in the construction of the cylinder. I know exactly what to do, but since you will never listen to an alien who once planned to destroy Earth, I`ll leave you guessing."

Orbulon left, and Kat and Ana followed him.

***

Ashley was trying to make a potion which would turn her into a ghost.

"Which potion are you trying, Ashley?"

"I heard some of the manor`s ghosts were leaving and entering the cylinder anytime, so I was experimenting with the potion recipe book to make a potion turning me into a ghost and save the city."

"That isn`t like you at all, Ashley. What happens?"

"I`m feeling like a caged bird here. I hate feeling watched every time I go outside, I hate these goddamn walls all around, I just want thing to go back to normal and I… Hey, are you listening?"

Red had put on his Mp3 player`s earphones and was listening to loud but relaxing music. Ashley`s hair turned white, her eyes became red, and she took in a swift motion the earphones out of Red`s ears, leaving a trail of blood.

"Ouch! Ashley!"

"I hate feeling like talking to a wall." Ashley heard the music coming out of the earphones, and screamed. "But that`s relaxation music! Are you crazy? I hate relaxation!"

"Wow, you really hate a lot of things…" Red said, massaging his slightly bleeding ears. "It`s the only way I can resist to my demon urges. If I were to listen to hard rock or heavy metal… I prefer not think about that."

"You`d turn into a giant devil who really looks diabolical and with super-powers and all? It`s almost cool." Ashley went back to her potion-making, letting Red go upstairs to cover his ears with plasters.

***

9-Volt was pondering again about his game when he saw a troop of Warioware employees approaching his house. "I almost forgot! It`s this morning that I invited the people about my game!" 9-Volt could see Kat, Master Mantis, Mona, Penny and James, as well as many others who decided to come even though they didn`t really care. 9-Volt let them enter before him, much to the distress of 5-Volt, who screamed after her son.

"You invited all these people? In OUR house? Without my permission?"

9-Volt simply didn`t answer, as he let the people in. Some said sorry to the mother, who rushed to her broom closet. There would be a lot of cleaning after that troop would be out. 9-Volt lead the group to the living room, where a Wii was branched to the TV. 9-Volt put on the Wiimote and began the game. Once in a while someone in the room was trying something to solve the problem. But each time, 9-Volt answered that he already had tried.

"What is the story, by the way?" Mona asked.

"It`s a guy who gets locked up in a jail for a crime he didn`t commit, and so he has to get out of jail first, and then get out of town, and after that he has to find and kill the one who accused him. However, the entire town is surrounded by walls, and I never got any idea how to get out, there are no weapons to blast the walls, and there is no way to dig out."

After a few minutes, Mona figured it out.

"I thought you, a fan of Mario, should have guessed that easily!"

9-Volt turned to Mona. "What do you mean?"

"You say the character is caught in a town, and there are houses all around. I don`t know if you noticed, but there are sewer openings at some places in the streets. The sewers is maybe the only way to get out!"

9-Volt decided to spin the camera until the character would see a sewer, and he moved the character toward the plaque. He opened the passage and entered in.

"Hey Mona, that`s it! Thanks!" *that was too obvious, I never thought about it. Fudge.*

Mona then thought about it. "Maybe you are right! That`s the way we can get out of the city!"

9-Volt looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Mona Pizza has burned each day and we always had plenty of water to put down the fire. That means the enemy has not thought about blocking the sewers. That`s the way to get out! Thanks, 9-Volt! I`m gonna start up a save mob. I mean we`re gonna go down the sewers, fight against the one who did that and we`ll save the city! Want to be in it?"

"Well, if Orbulon is right and that it`s Mario who did all that, then I guess his biggest fan can pay him a visit."

"I`ll join," Kat said.

"Great!" Mona said. At that the crowd left the house, and left behind what any crowd leaves behind: lots of dirt to clean up! Mrs. 5-Volt looked at the devastated living room and decided to clean it up another day.

Mona, once outside, jumped on her motorcycle and traveled around the city, hoping to meet people who would accept the mission. A first she went to Ashley`s Mansion, and she knocked at the door. Red answered.

"Yes?"

"I am making an elite team to free the city, but I need Ashley."

"I`m sorry, Ashley is trying to make a potion to turn into a ghost. And believe me, when a potion messes up, it`s kinda scary to see. I`ve already seen Ashley lose all her hair, and grow it back with another potion. At another time, she turned into a humanlike lizard. That was not beautiful, let me tell you."

"Do you think she can still join? With her spells, she would be very helpful."

"Nope, sorry. Her transformation into a human gecko has almost entirely reverted, but her tongue is still… weird since yesterday. Anyway, she`s too busy. Oh, by the way, thanks again for the Mp3 music. I didn`t know you liked relaxation music as well…"

"You know, Red, I work at an ice cream parlor, at a pizza restaurant, I am in a band and I`m regularly a cheerleader in high school. With all that, I have to relax. Well, if Ashley can`t, maybe you can…"

"I`d love to!"

"OK, see you tomorrow at seven o`clock."

Mona traveled then to the Dojo. She knocked at the door, and Master Mantis answered.

"Young lady Mona. Why are the reasons you are here today?"

Mona explained her plan of making a team and freeing the city. Since that will be repeated often, I`ll just pass over it next times.

"I was wondering if Young Cricket would want to be in the team."

"I am sincerely sorry but my student is presently trying to control his mental impulses. Right now he is standing over a pole and he shall not fall until an hour passes."

Behind Master Mantis, a loud plaf could be heard. Master Mantis turned to his student who just fell off the pole, and saw a new bruise appearing on Cricket`s forehead, followed by a loud scream of agony. *He lasted fifty-five minutes.* Master Mantis calculated. *He is getting better.*

"That is his tenth bruise since the appearance of the walls in the panorama. It is certainly not what I wanted but Young Cricket has a lot to learn to become en excellent martial artist. And he has to live through pain, might it be a simple headache or a collection of bruises on the head. But if you need an exceptional fighter for your savior team, I might consider joining."

"Thanks, mister Mantis!"

"Master Mantis, young lady. I am still an old man, but all my life since I passed my eighteen birthday I have been called Master or sensei. Please respect this."

"No problem, mist… Sensei Mantis! I hope to see you in the team!

Mona then went to see Orbulon. She told him the same story as she had told Red and Master Mantis, and he agreed to join. Too bad she hasn`t found anyone else…

* * *

Author`s note: Now that there is a team, there will eventually be a face-off. I know there are still some mysteries going around, but they`ll all be arranged in the next chapter. I really like all your reviews, and I`m sorry Spitz has not a quite important part. Well, maybe. Orbulon has had a more important part, after all. Maybe Spitz will have a better role… Another thing to know is that the next chapter is some sort of break in the story, some kind of song like in cartoon movies. My first songfic with a remake of a villain song. I`ll try my hand at that, but I have no idea if it`s gonna be good...


	6. InBetween: Mikes New Theme

I don`t own the characters nor the song that was parodied in this in-between. I only own the plot, which kids sucks since when you have teh plot but not the characters, the dreams of having a fanfic become a real game are as high as winning a huge amount on money on a lottery ticket, in Brazil, during a snowstorm, while thunder is falling. That`s really sad.

In-Between: Mike`s New Theme

A robot appeared out of darkness. It was night, but Mike didn`t care. Lights were lit in every house. It was entire darkness everywhere because of the cylinder. Mike`s eyes were flashing red, and he was accompanied by a group of critters from the Mario world: three Goombas, two Koopas and a Hammer Bro. Mike made his way to the power plant, a huge place where all kinds of electricity was made: hydroelectricity, nuclear, solar, wind energies all used at the same place. As they smashed the door open, they noticed there was nobody in the plant. Mike took that chance to reveal his plan.

"Goombas, Koopas and Bros, here`s the deal: we`ll cut off all electricity from the town. Now they`ll have no else choice but to surrender. And while we do that, I`ll suck up all energy I can. All while singing, of course."

"I thought you couldn`t sing anymore, master Mike…" the Hammer Bro said.

"Mario kept my karaoke microprocessor, but modified so that I could only change the lyrics of original songs and sing the new song. I just found a perfect villain song to transform, and believe me our actions are gonna be really catchy!"

Mike moved toward the first energy container. He put his palms on the container, and energy began coming out of it, turning Mike`s hands electric blue and lighting up the robot`s body. And all the while, Mike began singing (on the air of the complete Toxic Love song). He seemed to savor the electricity all while singing.

_Mmm… thunder…_

_Mmm… static…_

_Mmm… shocks…._

_Mmm… POWER!_

Mike moved ahead to the first chorus as his hands still full of electricity placed on the second container. The critters placed themselves on pipes and began tapping it, creating some kind of noise to go with the singing.

_My system… s`growing tough_

_I`ll treat `em real hard and rough_

_Pain behind me… Fear up above_

_Ooh you`ll hate my (wo-wo-wo) power love_

_Power love_

When Mike put his hands away from the container, he still had some sort of thunder balls in his hands. With a swift motion, he threw the thunder balls toward the containers, who exploded with the shock. Mike then moved ahead to the containers containing energy from the solar machines. Since it was night, they were almost empty but Mike didn`t care at all.

_I see the town and all the people in it_

_I suck`em dry, steal their vital energy_

_I feel my power – it goes up every minute_

_Soon or later, even Wario will not be in fit_

_I feel bad – a special kind of evil_

_`Cause peacefulness ain`t good to me at all_

_I`ll pass the city in a kind of giant blender_

_And spread everywhere else a terrible reign of terror_

One of the Goombas began talking.

"I think I heard the original before, and it seems like your lyric change hasn`t transformed the song at all…"

Mike just snapped his fingers, and the Hammer Bro threw a hammer at the Goomba, shutting him up. Mike mimicked a motion of wiping off his mouth like someone who had overeaten and who had a mustache of liquid. On this, he moved ahead toward the nuclear containers, however before he sang another part.

_Powerful static shocks_

_Caught in these cylinder blocks_

_All that`s fuel – all that`s gore_

_Feeds my microprocessor_

"Wait, do you mean there is electricity in the blocks?"

"That`s exactly what he meant," the other Koopa Troopa said. "There truly is, it`s energy from the Question Blocks."

"And what does he mean by fuel, gore?"

"He just means he`s taking all energy from the pain he causes and the electricity he takes from the containers."

"Wow, no wonder you finished Koopa University in philosophy… but you got that less-than-nothing job."

Mike ignored that dialog and continued his powering task.

_And after eating, I`d go for a thing real cool_

_VENGEANCE! On this city and this Wario fool_

_I`m gonna spread death to all residents of the place_

_And I`m gonna do it at a really freaking fast pace_

_`Cause great leader Mario is never gonna stop_

_Until destruction of this city worse than a mop_

_And what a powerful army he has provided_

_To lend a trail of doom with my dance moves to lead it_

_(Diabolical laugh)_

The six minions acclaimed Mike, who was doing an excellent job at sucking up the energy. Oh, and they also acclaimed the song`s lyrics.

_Try hitting me once_

_Try hitting me twice_

_Ow! Ah! But after, you ain`t gonna feel nice_

On this, Mike ended his job by sucking all energy from the wind containers. Now, he had stored in so much electricity that he was lighting in the dark. With a wonderful static show, Mike ended with the chorus. He was sending electricity all around the plant, breaking stuff with his static powers, and the minions looked at this, more scared than proud of having him as team leader.

_My system… s`growing tough_

_I`ll treat `em real hard and rough_

_Pain behind me… Fear up above_

_Ooh you`ll hate my (wo-wo-wo) power love_

The six enemies ran out of the plant, fearing it would be destroyed soon. As Mike moved on to his greatest diabolical laugh ever, the power plant got surrounded by electricity, until it finally exploded. Mike was standing in the remains of the now-destroyed plant, with an evil grin on the face. The seven characters could see electricity going off in all houses, until the entire city went totally dark.

"Our job is accomplished here," Mike said. "Teleport."

On this Mike and the six enemies warped off to the Giant Airship flying in the skies, high over the cylinder.

Author`s notes: Ouh… that`s far from great… it`s to be my scariest fic ever… Maybe BDAN3 was worse… I dunno at all. Anyway, if you think things couldn`t go worse, you`re wrong. Now, the enemy is going to go even further… But tell me if my first songfic is good too.


	7. Elite Squadron Down the Drain

I don`t own the series nor the characters. If I had, the stories would link together like this one.

Chapter 6: Elite Squadron down the Drain

Author`s note: now this is a chapter quite difficult to follow since it all happens in a day. So I decided to add in the time and location, but only for this chapter. Also, this chapter is so important it has over 3,000 words, which is a new highscore for me. Also, I would like to announce that the story has reached its center. The next chapters are still very hard to read since action is more present than before and terrible tings will happen, but keep reading. It`s not finished until it`s done and things will end well (or at least, I hope so.). After this chapter, please DON`T try guessing. If you`re right or if you thought about something different, people might think in that way and maybe get it right at the end.

* * *

Midnight. Location? Wario`s house.

Wario was in his garage, surrounded by empty beer bottles.

"I think I really messed it all up," Wario said. "If I want to have my money back, I have to do something out of character: I`ll be good for once. I really know who is behind all that, I know him very well, and he ain`t gonna stop until his goal is achieved. Anyway the others can take care of Bowser."

Wario went back to upgrading his bike. He had already added a dynamite cannon in front and rocket launchers at the back. He was planning to add wings on each side, but it would be too complicated with the legs and all that… Wario knows exactly what to do, he knows exactly his enemy. He knows that the enemy is going around in a giant Airship since some time.

Of course, Wario had broken all links with his past employees. Wario had not ordered the beer bottles to drink them. He had better plans. Wario looked at the plans of the structure hidden behind his house. Yes, everything was ready for the final showdown. Now the only thing needed was to break the ice.

Wario knew his employees. If they`re not devoted to Warioware, they`re devoted to their own personal lives, and the appearance of these walls changed all their plans. They`ll do everything needed to get out.

Also, Wario knows Mona forever keeps a beeper with her, and when she pushes the button Wario receives a signal and he can go help her. Wario just had to hope she kept it. Also, the recent power cuts were far from helpful.

***

Two o'clock in the morning. Location: Crygor`s lab.

Their house being in Diamond City, Dribble and Spitz had to sleep in Dr Crygor`s wacky laboratory. They each were in a sleeping bag, sleeping on the ground. Dribble was sucking on his thumb like a baby and Spitz was sleeping with his arms crossed behind his head. That was quite funny to see Dribble like that, but Spitz didn`t care. He just wanted to see the guy who did all that and make him pay. Dr. Crygor was in the chamber he had made and he was turning on a side and on another.

BOOM! A giant monster slammed the laboratory. It awakened the three occupants of the place. Dribble noticed the thumb in his mouth and put it out before anyone notices he was sleeping like a baby. Spitz and his bulldog friend rushed to Dr. Crygor`s room where they found that the wall had been destroyed and Crygor had been taken. Dribble and Spitz stepped up, and they saw something terrible: a giant, squid-like monster that was stuck to the exterior wall. Its glowing yellow eyes had a terrifying look and the monster looked like a Blooper.

"I heard `bout dat monster. It`s Goopah Bloopah!" Dribble said.

"You`re wrong!" Spitz said. "Look, it`s a machine!"

Dribble looked better at the creature and noticed its "skin" was grey instead of white.

At that, the Gooper Roblooper slammed three tentacles in the room. Dribble and Spitz avoided them in extremis, and Spitz pointed at some machines in Crygor`s room. Dribble ran to get them and came back. Dribble took a mega gun with exploding stickballs and Spitz chose a petrifying short range missile weapon. Dribble shot an exploding baseball near each eye, and they exploded, breaking the eyes. Spitz shot at the tentacles and paralyzed two of them.

"Dribble, look! Our first mission is to free Crygor from that robot!"

"Aye aye, cat-tain!" Dribble said in a pun.

Dribble jumped down and fell on the Gooper Roblooper`s face. The bulldog then stuck to the tentacle that had captured Crygor. He began following the tentacle until he reached Crygor. Spitz saw that other tentacles were going to catch Dribble, so Spitz shot two or three shots and the paralyzed tentacles simply fell down. Dribble almost freed Crygor when the Roblooper showed a last trick: two tongues came out of the giant robot`s mouth, and caught the two cab drivers. Then, using some reactors under the robot Blooper`s body, the monster flew toward the Giant Airship.

***

Nine o`clock, in front of 9-Volt`s house.

It was still a little dark as the sun had just began passing from a side to another of the cylinder.

"Hello? I`m here now! Come and get me!"

Mike appeared by teleportation behind 9-Volt. The robot just took 9-Volt`s arm, made him gulp a sleeping pill, and teleported with him to the Giant Airship.

9-Volt woke up only ten minutes later, in the Giant Airship.

"Welcome, my biggest fan."

9-Volt saw a man sitting on a chair. It had the mustache, the overalls, the nose, the red cap, the brown shoes.

"Mario?"

9-Volt stepped on his feet and faced Mario. That`s weird, Mario seemed to have lost a bit of weight.

"Mario, is that really you?"

"I think so. After all, I have everything to conquer Diamond City. That`s me, Mario, the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom."

9-Volt stood up.

"Listen, Mario. I have no idea why you do that, but I think we can find an arrangement."

"I am all ears."

"Listen, I will defy you on any Mario game. If you win, you can have me as well as you got Mike and continue your crazy plan. If I win, though, you free the city from the cylinder, you free Mike, and you leave Wario do his own things. Deal?"

Mario stood up from his chair, and 9-Volt could really see Mario was thinner than in the games. He was also a little taller.

"But before we begin, just answer that question. Why are you thin and tall like Luigi right now?"

"You don`t think I would be skinny and short after all the Bowser-battling adventures?"

"Yeah… that makes sense… Anyway, which game will you be fighting against me?"

"I thought about the Super Mario Brotherly Battle, a special game only for me."

"What is it?"

"Actually, it`s SMB but where Mario and Luigi compete to complete the levels the fastest possible, and you can fight against the other player."

"Fine!" 9-Volt said. "I thought it would take millenniums before a game like that would be made!"

Mike and his helpers brought an immense television, on which was plugged a GameCube. When 9-Volt asked why it was not a Wii, Mario simply answered that the Wii wouldn`t support that game, it was exclusive to the GameCube. Mario popped the game in, and 9-Volt saw the ever-familiar title screen of Super Mario Bros. However, it was in 3D.

"Cool!"

Mario chose Luigi, giving 9-Volt the possibility to choose Mario. When the kid asked why, Mario simply answered that he wanted to give his bro a chance.

The level 1-1 began. 9-Volt knew what was where. That was a really cruel game, since the players could attack each other, and there were two ways of winning: either when the other falls Game Over, either when one player reached the end first. However, if the two players had defeated the last Bowser, they had to fight fiercely for the one who would go free Peach.

During this game that lasted five hours maybe, 9-Volt and Mario fought bravely over the thirty-two levels of the very first Super Mario Brothers. When a False Bowser was near, they helped each other, but that was just to fight even more in the following level. Finally, the maze of Level 8-4 was passed by the two heroes and Mario and Luigi faced Bowser together. 9-Volt and Mario played with all their thumbs until Bowser was defeated. The Mario turned to 9-Volt and said:

"Not bad for a youngster."

"Not bad for a hero neither. But now, it`s whoever will win the battle."

Now the pixel Mario was blocking the way, and the pixel Luigi was getting prepared. That was going to be the greatest fight between the two brothers. (If I could compare it to another similar fight, I`d compare it with the Naruto VS Sasuke fight after the Sound Four). The axe had been blocked by the game, it was now or never. Each player had only one life left, and their characters were each in their Fire forms. Mario and 9-Volt controlled their characters to shoot fireballs and hope touching the enemy. Luigi got touched by a fireball and reverted to his Super form, so he stomped on Mario`s head to get back to equality.

"You wanna play like this, Volt-kid?"

"Bring on all you got!"

The final battle ended at a surprising score: Luigi in his Small form, having defeated Mario. Of course, now the path opened and the players could see Luigi reaching Princess Toadstool. But 9-Volt didn`t like that at all. The kid threw his controller on the floor.

"That`s unfair!"

"I won in the rules, 9-Volt. Now you honor your part. Let Mike bring you to the brainwash room."

9-Volt could do nothing, his yellow helmet got replaced by a purple one, and he suddenly turned to the evil side. An evil smile appeared on his face. "Now Diamond City`s bound to be Game Over."

***

Noon. Location: Kat and Ana`s House.

Kat and Ana were practicing their latest ninja trick. The exercise was to practice aiming at targets while trying to avoid the many shuriken-throwing thingamajigs. Ana had built all around the house some kind of system that would throw a series of shurikens, and she had placed targets at places and at others around the house. Kat had to use the field around, climbing and avoiding the shurikens, while aiming the center of each target. That would be piece of cake for a teenage ninja but it was a lot harder for a kindergarten ninja. But the real problem, and we saw it recently, was that all the stress caused by the cylinder, the two sisters were losing their minds trying to find an answer. That`s why they attacked Orbulon literally. Luckily Mona stopped them, unless they would have more than likely have seen Orbulon`s blood color.

So Kat began that hard task. She ran around the house, picking up speed all while avoiding the shurikens thrown in her direction. She threw her kunais at the targets, missing them by very little. She felt touched by a few shurikens but she had no real injury, just little scratches. Out of breath, Kat landed softly on the ground behind the house, having missed by millimeters each target.

Ana was watching her sister while sipping on lemonade. Ana, as a great ninja, had already completed the task. She was a greatly skilled ninja for a kindergartner, older ninjas even said that she would be a Sensei at twelve if she continued being that great. Her throws were still not really precise but she was really near the center.

"Not bad, sis," she told Kat. "I just think you need more practice."

"Ana?"

"Yes?"

"We should not have sisterly rivalry; I heard it could really ruin everything. I heard ninja stories where families were destroyed by that."

"Fine, name one."

"Uh… ever heard of the Ouch-he-was?"

"That doesn`t exist at all!" Ana answered.

"Yes, in a manga. Though I don`t remember which one."

Anyway, Kat was packing up her stuff for the great escape Mona had planned for that night. Ana didn`t feel like going and explore, she still had a lot to do. Practicing her skills, as an example. Kat jumped toward the meeting point, which is the Warioware building.

***

1 o`clock afternoon. Location: Ashley`s mansion.

Ashley had just learned about Red`s plan of being part of the Elite Team. The words had just come out of the devil`s mouth that Ashley burst into an enormous fit of anger, scarier than Wario had done at the beginning.

"Huh… calm down, Ashley…" Red could mutter. The witch was really terrifying when her hair turned white. Ashley was about to punch Red when the little devil avoided the hit and put his Mp3 player`s earphones in Ashley`s ears. That calmed the witch down. As soon as she came back to normal though, she threw the earphones off.

"Yerk, relaxation music! I still disagree with you going out, risking your life."

"Feeling any motherly instincts toward me, Ashley?"

That remark caused Ashley to punch him once again, but this time she succeeded.

"No way! I just don`t want you to die, Red. You`re my servant, my experiment subject and my scepter whenever I need it. I need you alive at all costs for my own personal profit."

"Well, you can`t stop me, Ashley. I`ll go anyway. I just have that to do. Don`t worry, we`ll all come back alive."

"I hope sssso for you." Ashley said with her still reptilian-like tongue. "Damn tongue. It does that once in a while. That potion is really difficult, and that freaking tongue hasn`t still reverted to normal. I also feel my hands are stickier than usual…"

***

6 o`clock afternoon. Location: Ancient Warioware locals, Warioware building.

Mona pulled out a generator from the darkness. It was one of the only power sources left in town. She was going to use it on her computer. The Elite Team members arrived one after the other. First Kat, then Master Mantis, then Orbulon, and finally Red, who escaped while Ashley was not watching. 9-Volt was nowhere to be seen. The team had no time to wait for him, and he had suddenly disappeared since the morning. 5-Volt was sad.

Mona was giving them orders in walkie-talkies bought at the town`s Hardware Store. They were working since they were working with batteries. Mona told the team a few things before they go down.

"I know we don`t have the best team ever: a devil, an alien, a kindergartner and a wise old man, but that`s all we could do. I really think you four can help each other. You, Red, you got hell powers though they are still quite weak. Orbulon, you`re ultra smart and you can get out of any situation with your IQ of 300. You, Kat, you are fast and your ninja skills are good. You, Master Mantis, you are a martial artist sensei and the most powerful fighter I know."

The four team members nodded.

"There is a sewer opening just down here. Go there, open it, go down, and find your way toward the neighboring city."

The team members left. They easily found the opening despite the surrounding darkness, and they all jumped down the opening, ending up in the sewers. There was an odor of decomposition, as well as a very disgusting smell of… eeyew, better not thinking about it.

"I`m lucky not to have a nose," Orbulon said.

"We shall reach the other town, friends," Master Mantis said. "It is our principal task and our most important mission for now. The terrible smell should not prevent us from success in this vital mission."

The team moved on a bit more to find a metallic, square grid. Master Mantis motioned something to tell the others to go back a step or two.

"Fifty-fisty-spinnar technique!" Master Mantis screamed. Master Mantis began spinning at a really fast pace, and he approached the grid all while spinning, and his hands cut the grid like it was butter. A clear opening was made in the grid, which was large enough to let everyone pass.

"We may pass."

Many meters later, the team arrived at an intersection. Kat was holding the walkie-talkie. "We are at an intersection, Mona. What do we do?"

"Orbulon has the answer."

Orbulon analyzed the situation. The surface where they were walking was a stone-like platform, and there was another on the other side of the "river" made of the disgusting stuff in the sewers. The water was going in the opposite sense.

"We should go straight. I see that the water comes all from the path in front, and it flows from there to the three other path openings. As such, if there is a current, then it is because the sanitation station is throwing away all used waters, and for this they use turbines which send the water at a good speed. Thus, we have to continue straight and reach the sanitation station."

The team continued walking for many minutes, until they found out an army of rats waiting for them. Kat took out her ninja weapons, and attacked. The results? One kindergartner with hard breathing, and no rat still alive. "Good job Kat!" Red said.

After a few more steps, the team finally reached the sewer opening. However, it was the other side of the water.

"My turn!" Red said. In a swift motion, he planted his trident in the water, and the water turned into ice. The sewer opening was at the other side, and they walked on the ice until they reached the other side. Finally, they climbed up the ladder, pushed the sewer plaque, and they came out of the sewers.

They were right beside the cylinder. They were looking at it from outside, and it was really weird after having been inside it since a week or two. Mona shouted in the walkie-talkie:

"Are you all right, guys?"

"We`re doing fine! We are out!" Kat said. "We each helped getting out, but we all succeeded."

But she had no time to say something else. The Gooper Roblooper had fallen beside them in a loud boom, and four people came out of it: Dr. Crygor, Dribble, Spitz and the purple-helmeted 9-Volt. However, they all had a devilish look on the face. The four heroes tried attacking the giant robot, but they were no match for it. They were sucked inside the robot. Kat let the walkie-talkie fall off her. The new 9-Volt took the walkie-talkie (in which Mona was screaming "Are you still there? Guys?"), and said:

"Game Over."

On this the Gooper Roblooper let 9-Volt enter inside itself, and lifted off the ground, toward the Giant Airship.

"I… lost them!" Mona said in front of her computer. "We are doomed."

* * *

Author`s notes: That`s really getting critical. I suppose the story will still last about 3 or 4 chapters. I know Mable`s favorite character turned evil but like that, he has a more important role. I can already tell you that everything is placed now for the ending challenge. Starting from there, things really wrap up until the mighty final fight.

PS: since the beginning I have made many references to other works (music, TV, anime, cartoons). I bet you can`t find them all. Even though many are really evident, others are well-thought and difficult to guess.


	8. The new Elite Team

Chapter 7: The New Elite Team

In the giant Airship up in the skies, Mario was talking to his subordinates.

"Now I want this to be clear: no fight between all of you. You can only fight against the Diamond Citizens who are trying to get out of the trap."

Mario walked from a side of another of the room, facing his new generals like a general who looks at his soldiers. Mario passed in front of Mike, Crygor, Dribble, Spitz, then 9-Volt, and then his four new generals Master Mantis, Kat, Orbulon and Red.

"Listen. You will fight against your former best friends from now on. Since you have been brainwashed to serve only me, I bet you don`t care."

"No, master."

"It has been two weeks now. Way too long. To finally get rid of Wario, we will begin the final phase of my plan. Crushing Diamond City."

Nobody was surprised by this.

"However, I know you each have someone who really likes you and will try saving you. They will make a second elite team, but this time we will not wait for them to come out. We`ll get them right in the sewers. I can already foresee Ashley, Ana, 18-Volt and Young Cricket in the second Elite Team."

"What is the plan, Master?" Master Mantis asked.

"Let me tell you everything about it, then…

***

Young Cricket, in the dojo, was waiting for Master Mantis to come back. He was trying to clean up his many bruises. He was somewhat ugly with all these bruises all over his head. However, that was not the main problem. Where was Sensei Mantis?

Young Cricket had put a cold towel around his head, like a headband. Curing his damaged head was his main occupation, and he could not train when Master was not there. The recent power cuts were also another problem.

The truth is: Diamond City had lost all hopes of being freed. Now, let me first explain all the circumstances. At first, the sun passed from 9 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon, because of the wall which blocked the sun from appearing sooner and disappearing later. Then, the magnifier on top of it caused the sun to burn everything in town, but this was arranged since pretty much everyone in Diamond City improvised themselves into firemen and were watering the building at times the sun passed. When the sun had disappeared after 3 in the afternoon, there was still the electricity to light up the houses. However, now, it was either hot and burning, either dark and impossible to go out because it`s too dark. Many Diamond Citizens were lucky to have houses or buildings that couldn`t burn. Master Mantis` Dojo, as an example, was fireproof.

After thinking it all about, Young Cricket decided to break out the training he had made since a week, and in an impulse he ran to see Mona at the ice cream parlor.

He was surprised to find nobody in the parlor. He looked around and saw finally Mona, Joe, and some other people in the giant fridge where were stored the ice cream reserves. Young Cricket opened the door.

"Guys, did someone lock you up in there?"

"No," Mona said, "the door was unlocked since you opened it easily. We decided to refresh a little in here. Let`s say that since we lost the Elite Team, we`re feeling at our lowest since never before. And it`s too hot outside, we need to cool down."

"You`re all gonna catch a cold in there!" Cricket said. "Mona, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Mona stepped out of the giant room AKA the fridge.

"Do you know where Master Mantis is? I`m worried."

"Ohh… I really don`t want to say it. It`s too terrible."

"So something bad happened, is that it? Come on, tell me!"

"Well, the Elite Team disappeared in the sewers. I suppose they were caught by the enemy and brainwashed just like Mike before."

"Then why don`t you make another Elite Team to go save them?"

"I thought about it, but everyone`s feeling down with zero hopes left," Mona explained.

"If you don`t do it, I`m gonna do it!"

"You will?"

"I sure will!" Cricket said with confidence. "No matter what shows up, we`re gonna be a good number of people this time, and not only four. We`ll be six or seven. And I`ll join despite this."

Young Cricket retired the towel from his head, and Mona could see all bruises on his head. She first thought it was ugly, but by a lucky twist of events, it was only on his head and forehead, so his face was still okay. With the towel, he looked like a guy of another religion in Asia but whatever. He was still cute at Mona`s eyes.

"Well, maybe I`ll join too then," Mona told him.

"Fine, see you tomorrow!" Young Cricket said, before running away.

First of all, Young Cricket ran to the school and asked Penny to join the team, and the brilliant girl agreed. Even for her, it was a real puzzle with many pieces missing.

Then, Young Cricket ran to the Thang family`s house. There he explained the story, how the Elite Team was caught, and Jimmy showed up.

"Jimmy, you still can`t walk!" Mama T. told her son.

"Mama, I`ll be okay. I`ll join."

"You`re crazy or what?" James said. "You can`t go! Your leg still hurts!"

"Ah, beat it!" Jimmy said. "I go, that`s it, that`s all. I got my secret weapon. I`ll be fine. I join."

Young Cricket thanked Jimmy for his braveness and ran away to the next destination. He knocked at 9-Volt`s house. 5-Volt answered.

"Is 18-Volt there?"

18-Volt appeared behind 9-Volt`s mother.

"Word?"

"Hey, 18-Volt, I need you in the Elite Team 2. We`ll go save your best friend 9-Volt!"

18-Volt lifted his thumb up. "Word!"

"That`s a yes?" Cricket asked.

18-Volt nodded.

"Fine. Thanks! See you tomorrow!

Then, Young Cricket ran to Ana`s house. She was still crying because of the disappearance of her sister. That kind of sisterly link was powerful. She could feel it whenever her sister was too far. But now she just felt it no more. When the martial artist knocked at Ana`s door, she answered all while blowing her nose in a tissue. Cricket told her everything, and invited her in the team. He also told her that it would be her best chance to save Kat. On this, Ana accepted right away.

Finally, Young Cricket knocked at Ashley`s Mansion`s door. The witch didn`t answer. Young Cricket knocked a few more times, and the sorceress finally answered. She had red eyes, that meant she had cried a bit. Anyone knowing her well would laugh, knowing that she never expresses any feelings except when it comes to negative like anger. She was rarely crying. That meant she was missing her Red. Young Cricket explained the situation, and finally the witch accepted, after learning that this might be the best thing to do to free their friends and her Red.

***

And the next day, the team joined at the ancient Warioware locals. Everyone was there: Young Cricket (the auto-proclaimed leader), Mona, Penny, Jimmy, 18-Volt, Ana and Ashley. More girls than boys, but nobody cared. They all went down the sewers. And, this time, everything seemed fine. However, they were followed by a massive thing, which was still hidden in the darkness.

This time, everyone arrived at the end of the sewers, and they were about to climb. Mona went first, she tried opening the passage, but the plaque seemed too heavy. Young Cricket helped her, but nothing happened. They tried at four, but it was impossible. The enemy had blocked the exit with a block, leaving them at mercy of the thing following them. Four eyes lit up in the dark; these were Gooper Roblooper`s eyes. The robot had, in a way or the other, entered the sewers. And inside it were some of Mario`s generals. The eyes produced just enough light to let the Elite Team 2 see everything in the sewers. A panel opened on Gooper Roblooper and the two cab drivers came out, followed by the evil 9-Volt. There was also Dr. Crygor behind them, and Mike could be seen.

"Uncle Crygor!" Penny said. "It`s me, your niece!"

"Never heard of." Crygor said.

"Forget about him, Penny, he got brainwashed," Mona said. "We have bigger problems."

9-Volt`s purple helmet threw lasers in many directions and the Elite Team 2 avoided them. But Spitz was attacking with catlike abilities while Dribble was trying to bite anyone near. Young Cricket prepared himself.

"Hothead Technique!"

On this, Young Cricket ran at full speed toward the attackers, and he lowered his head to smash them hard. The bruises had at least this good that his head had enlarged a bit. Sure it hurts when the impact is felt but the enemy gets breathless. With this, Young Cricket smashed Dribble hard enough to make the dog fall in the water. He came out immediately, not without leaving a "Phooey! Da wateh stinks!"

Dr. Crygor had cornered his niece and was about to attack her when Ashley, who was hung to the ceiling because of her sticky lizard-like hands, smashed the back of Crygor`s head with her feet. Crygor fell on the floor, and Ashley fell on her feet.

"Thanks Ashley. I owe you that one."

"We got a bigger problem for now, smart girl."

Spitz was coming at them, fangs and claws at their sharpest, when Ana tackled the cat to the ground.

"Between girls, we gotta help each other!"

On this, Mike, who was still in the Gooper Roblooper, had started an out loud song. The noise was so loud, everyone fell to the ground, even Jimmy. However the cab drivers, the videogame player and the old scientist had their ears covered. The Elite Team 2 members were brought inside the Gooper Roblooper and the robot teleported to the Giant Airship.

***

The Elite Team 2 woke up in a jail cell. Mona looked through the window and could see clouds. They were in the Giant Airship, taken as hostages.

"Where are we?" Jimmy asked.

"We are in the Giant Airship, the narrator just said it, dummy," Ashley answered. "I am joking, there`s no narrator, but we really are in the Giant Airship."

Dribble and Spitz were guarding their cell.

"Guys, why can`t you let us go?" Young Cricket asked them.

"It`s da big boss` ordars. We can`t let ya outta dat cell."

Ana moved near them, motioning the silence hand sign on her mouth, and approached the two ancient cab drivers. She made the deep-sleep move on them, pinching their shoulders, and they fell asleep. Ana was a really good ninja to be able to do that at her age. After that, she cut the bars with her katana and the prisoners escaped their cell. But a surveillance camera caught that on tape, and Mario saw everything. He automatically sent 9-Volt.

***

The Elite Team 2 walked just a little until they met 9-Volt, who was waiting for them with Super Mario Brotherly Battle.

18-Volt stepped in front of everyone. Everyone understood automatically what was going to happen: a battle between the 18 and the 9. We all know 9-Volt is better at games than 18-Volt, but this time 18-Volt had to do his best.

"Word," the teenager said.

"Oh, my former best friend," the evil 9-Volt said. "Wanna play?"

18-Volt took the P2 controller and sat beside 9-Volt. The giant TV appeared. The title screen of SMBB appeared. 9-Volt chose Mario and 18-Volt chose Luigi. This time, 9-Volt proved to be really evil, attacking relentlessly the other player in the game. 18-Volt had the double dare of avoiding all the hazards in the game, and also avoiding the nonstop attacks of his opponent. This time, the game was NOT going to last five hours. After ten minutes passed, the two players were at the first castle. They decided between each other that the first one to get Game Over would lose. If 18-Volt won, 9-Volt would let them pass. However, if 9-Volt won, they would be brought back to their cell and caught until the end of the master plan.

The fight between Mario and Luigi would thus be at the first castle.

Mario avoided the many fireballs thrown by Luigi, and stroke back with more fireballs, which Luigi avoided by jumping. Luigi landed on Mario`s head, and Fire Mario reverted to Super Mario. As such, Luigi continued throwing fireballs but Mario avoided them, and Luigi lost his control a little so he fell in lava. Now Luigi was Small Luigi and had two lives left while Mario was Super Mario and had three lives left. Everything seemed lost, when 18-Volt controlled Luigi to stomp Mario and Mario reverted to Small Mario. Luigi fell back on Mario`s head, causing the character`s death. The score was equal now. Another hit and Luigi lost a life. Then, Mario lost a life. Now they each had only one life left, and that would be the final round. The two plumbers jumped at the exact same time, and they met in the air, however they were at equal height so they couldn`t stomp each other. With equal forces, the game would last long… until 18-Volt slapped 9-Volt`s head. 9-Volt`s helmet fell a little on his eyes and he could no more see, so 18-Volt controlled Luigi to stomp Mario while 9-Volt couldn`t react. Result: Luigi won, Mario lost.

"You cheated!" 9-Volt said.

"Word," 18-Volt said, which sounded like "no."

"He didn`t, 9-Volt," Jimmy said. "Since the beginning of the game, you have been attacking without stopping, and that`s considered non fair-play and some kind of cheating too. So he just did the same thing as you."

"Ah, shut up, the note-mustached guy."

"He won, that`s all. If you disagree, we`re gonna attack you until you finally agree, got it?" Young Cricket said.

"Fine. You can all pass."

In next chapter: Ana fights against Kat, Ashley confronts Red and Dr. Crygor defies Penny at a creativity contest! When will they finally reach the final enemy???

Author`s notes: That`s it, there are three or four chapters left. The conclusion approaches at a nice speed. You might have noticed that now each hero of the Elite Team 2 will defeat one of Mario`s generals. I know Dribble and Spitz are left behind but they`ll come back later. For everyone who has discovered references that were well-hidden, tell me in a review or by Private Messaging. You`d be surprised of the many musical references. Anyway, the next chapters will be longer because of more battle descriptions, but it`s all gonna be OK. Keep reading, not all hopes are lost!


	9. Enemy After Enemy, part 1

I don`t own the characters. Oh cruel destiny!

Chapter 8: Enemy after Enemy, part 1

The seven heroes continued their way through the airship. They entered a big room which looked like an arena. In the center of it, Kat was waiting for them.

"Fine, if you`re there that means 9-Volt, that loser gamer, has been defeated. Now I will stop you from moving on! One of you will fight against me. If he or she wins, you can all pass. However, if he or she loses, you all go back in your cell.

Ana approached.

"Sis, you said yourself there shouldn`t be any sisterly rivalry. It`s crazy, but I think I`ll try fighting against you."

"Ana, are you sure it`s your fight? Isn`t it supposed to be my battle?" Young Cricket said.

"No! But I can`t explain why."

"Is it because if Kat is there to fight you, Master Mantis must be further to be defeated?" Jimmy asked.

"That`s what I meant," Ana answered. "Let me fight here, I can defeat her easily, I`m better than her."

"Fine. But don`t die!" Mona shouted.

The battle began. Ana threw a few shurikens. However Kat avoided them easily. Kat threw a kunai, and it hit Ana. Actually, it was just a scratch, but Ana noticed her sister aimed better than before.

"What happened?" Ana asked.

"Master Mantis trained me, dummy. I supposed it was obvious!"

Being called "dummy", Ana threw a kunai but Kat avoided it. Kat threw two kunais and successfully hit Ana twice.

"We should stop that, Kat. You`re still my sister!" Ana screamed.

"Not anymore."

Hearing this, Ana rushed toward her sister, kunais and shurikens ready to attack. She was about to stab Kat when the other ninja hit Ana with a kunai, only leaving an open scar on a cheek, which began bleeding a little.

The other team members were watching without saying a thing. They were all worried the kindergartners would kill each other in this fight.

Ana avoided one kunai thrown by Kat, and caught the other right before it hit her on the belly. She threw it back instantly, and this one hit Kat`s left leg. Kat started having problems walking, which would help Ana greatly in this fight. Ana threw some shurikens, but Kat jumped in the air and avoided them. She landed back on het feet and ran toward her sister. Ana took out her last remaining kunai and prepared for a short hand-to-hand battle. Kat also took out her last remaining kunai and the two fought a little by sing their kunais as swords. Finally, Kat threw out the kunai from her sister`s hand.

"I guess I won," Kat said.

"Not yet!" Ana screamed. On this the young ninja kicked the kunai out of Kat`s hand. "Now we only have our hands and feet left."

The two girls fought. Kat punched Ana, but she avoided it and kicked her sister`s face. Kat fell, but she was holding Ana, so the two girls fell of the floor. They fought again a bit, until Kat couldn`t move anymore.

"I won," Ana said.

"Fine. You can pass. I can`t stop you from passing. I`m unable to move. Just answer this question before, Ana. When you noticed I could no more move, why didn`t you kill me?"

"Because no matter how evil you became, you`re still my sister. It`s not like this that the Ouch-he-was history ended, but whatever."

On this, the Elite Team passed by the door at the other end of the arena.

***

The next room was also really big. This time, it`s Red who was sitting in the middle.

"Red! You`re there!" Ashley shouted, running toward her little devil.

"Stop! Remember what you said? I recall: "I need you at all costs for my own personal profit." That time is finished now, witch."

Ashley noticed there were earphones in Red`s ears.

"I thought you had forgotten your Mp3 player in the mansion?"

"That one is an Mp3vil, witch. It got hard rock, heavy metal and gothic songs. If you wanna pass, you`ll have to defeat my powered up version!"

On this, Red pushed the Play button on the Mp3vil. A terribly loud music could be heard coming out of it. As soon as it began, Red began growing, his muscular structure grew bigger and his face changed. His horns grew as well on his head. His trident enlarged until being three meters long. The new Red looked like a Lucifer and he looked like a devil, now more than ever. He was a lot more humanoid, however he was now six meters tall and he could apparently control his powers better. From the Mp3vil, we could hear a speedy guitar solo followed by a "WHY DO THEY ALWAYS SEND THE POOR???"

Ashley moved nearer the evil devil. Ashley turned to her friends and told them: "Don`t worry, I`ll survive. It`s the best time to use my gecko abilities." The Elite Team 2 remembered about Ashley`s past transformation and deducted that she still hadn`t totally reverted to normal. Her hands were still sticky, and her tongue was still stretching. The witch took off her shoes and socks, and the Elite Team 2 could notice her feet were as sticky as her hands.

Ashley ran toward the left wall and stuck her hands to it. She then climbed up, and stuck her feet to it. Ashley climbed the wall until she was at a good height. However, Redevil was trying to attack her with his giant trident. Ashley unstuck herself to the wall and fell on the weapon, but stuck her feet to it so she would not fall off. She ran on the trident until she reached the giant devil`s arm. Now in the Mp3vil, she could clearly hear: "KNEELING ROSES DISAPPEARING INTO MOSES` DRY MOUTH!" She approached the left ear and noticed the earphone had grown at the same time as Red. Wait a second… maybe that was it! Maybe she had to put the earphones out of her Red`s ears! Red was trying to catch her with his right hand. Ashley hurried in putting the earphone out of the left ear. However, se got caught by the giant devil`s right hand. Red threw her away. Ashley was about to hit the back wall when she extended her gecko tongue and stuck it to her past friend`s arm. She balanced for a short while until she finally fell back on Red`s right arm. She could hear another singer now. And this one was singing "And it`s so easy when you`re evil…"

However, Red saw the witch approaching the earphone too much and decided to throw electricity at her when she was about to unplug the second earphone. Ashley succeeded in putting off the earphone but Red had put on the other while she was doing that. The battle seemed lost, when Ashley hung up to the right earphone and balanced herself with it like some kind of female Tarzan. She landed on the other shoulder, and put the earphone out of it, and then she destroyed the cord with a spell. That earphone was now useless, and Red didn`t have time to put back the other earphone. Red reverted to his normal self.

"Wow… you defeated me… Good job. You can pass."

"Are you OK Red?" Ashley asked.

"I`m evil, I`m still with Mario. However, I am way too tired to even try stopping you."

Ashley threw something to Red: it was his good Mp3 player with the relaxation music. Ashley took care of stealing Red`s Mp3vil player. The Elite Team 2 moved on.

***

In the next room, there was Dr. Crygor. On each side of the room there were tables on which there was a stock of junk.

"Welcome to the great Invent-O-Tron! I will need someone super creative and intelligent. Maybe you, my supposedly niece."

Penny Crygor knew her uncle was talking about her. She approached the weird scientist.

"Here are the rules. You see the stuff on each table? The deal is to create something that works and does something, and this in ten minutes. We got that junk at Diamond City`s junkyard. There`s electronics, plastics, everything. We each have the exact same stuff. After ten minutes, each one will try the other`s creation, pushing all buttons on the remote control. Let`s go!"

Penny left for her table, while Crygor reached his table. They hid from each other with a curtain. Behind the curtain, Penny looked at the stuff. "That won`t be easy. Huh? Wait a minute..."

Ten minutes passed. Penny had made some kind of robot. She looked at the result. The robot`s remote control was anything but great, however after a few tests the robot was working well. Dr. Crygor came out of his own curtain, and announced that the time had passed. The curtains opened. Penny saw that Dr. Crygor had built a robot as well.

"Go first, maybe-niece."

Penny moved towards the robot built by Crygor. However, she turned to her uncle and said:

"Elders go first."

On this, Crygor seemed to shiver.

"Are you afraid? My robot hides nothing that can be dangerous."

Crygor took the remote control of Penny`s robot. He played with the buttons until he noticed a button right in the center. To better see the robot`s reaction, Crygor moved closer. He pushed the button, and BOOM! The robot exploded. Dr. Crygor was sent flying away by the explosion. It sure was something to see. The scientist laid there, unconscious, having hit the opposite wall.

Penny went a few steps further from Crygor`s robot and played with the remote control. She pushed a button and the other robot exploded as well.

"I knew Crygor became evil. I also knew he wanted to kill me after our encounter in the sewers. I noticed with the material that an artisanal bomb could be made out of it. Crygor said we had the exact same pieces, so his goal was to make a bomb, make me fiddle with his robot first, and kill me. So I used his technique against him. However, despite his intelligence, my uncle still fell in my own trap, another bomb."

"That`s smart, Penny!" Young Cricket said.

"I don`t know if my uncle is conscious right now, so we`ll just move ahead. We`ll see what else await us."

As the gang was passing through the door, Crygor woke up and whispered in a walkie-talkie:

"Send the Master. Not you, Mario, but the Sensei."

***

The next room was another huge arena. When I said it was a Giant Airship, I was not lying. It was really humongous. It was longer than five Boeing 747 put one after the other, and larger than three Boeing 747 put aside. Now that the details are explained, we can continue.

The Elite Team 2 entered another huge room which reminded Young Cricket of his Dojo. Master Mantis fell from the ceiling, right on his hands.

"Hey people! I`m gonna challenge any of you, if you lose you can`t pass, if I win then you go on. Got it, folks? Hey, I`m unbeatable!"

Young Cricket couldn`t believe his ears. Usually Master Mantis is always neutral when he talks, he always thinks what he is going to say and he always uses long words as much as possible. That brainwash sure had transformed him. Young Cricket faced his master.

"Looks like it`s the young cricket against the master mantis… I have no choice but fighting against my own sensei. Well, I guess I have nothing else to do."

In next chapter: The battle between Young Cricket and his sensei, Mike defies Jimmy at a memorable dance-off contest with an even harder song, and Mona racks her brain in a huge quiz against Orbulon. And they`ll finally reach the Boss, if they can really reach him…

Author`s notes: Wow! I can`t believe I have written three chapters (6, 7, 8) in less than half a week! Yes I still posted them one per week, but I have written them in the week-end between the 4th and 8th of September. I never ever thought I could go that far. With that, I could finish a chapter of my original story (PM me to know about it). I think I wrote about ten thousand words that weekend.

Well, that`s it. If you guessed where are the song lines from, then you`re okay. If you could find some hidden references, I mean ones that are really hard to find, then you`re excellent. I still haven`t calculated them.


	10. Enemy after Enemy, part 2

I still do not own the characters. I hate owning nothing yet.

Chapter 9: Enemy after Enemy, part 2

Young Cricket faced the old man who once was his sensei. "It`s the cricket against the mantis. I won`t win easily."

"Yeah, come one come all! I`ll defeat ya all! Nah, really! Believe me, you won`t get back on your feet after that!"

A huge bong was heard. The battle began. The other Elite Team 2 members went a few steps back.

Master Mantis and Young Cricket jumped at the exact same time. Young Cricket tried kicking his sensei but the old man twisted on himself, caught his student`s legs, and as they fell back he threw Cricket on the floor down there. Of course, the teenager landed on the head, causing one more bruise to appear, and he screamed of pain. Master Mantis was about to land on his past student when Cricket rolled out of the way. Mantis fell on his feet. Cricket tried kicking Mantis but the old man just avoided the hit.

Young Cricket got up, and jumped some steps back. Young Cricket then ran toward Mantis, but five meters away, Cricket made a long jump with his foot first, ready to kick his sensei. But the older martial artist grabbed Cricket`s leg, and with the power of judo he smashed him on the floor. The battle was seemingly lost. Young Cricket had problems getting up. Until Mona reminded him: "Use your head! You can defeat him!"

On this, Young Cricket stood up. He had the towel around his head ever since they got caught. He unwrapped his head from the towel, and Master Mantis could see how ugly he had become because of that uncountable number of bruises. On this, Cricket rushed toward his sensei, screaming like a devil, and tackled head first Mantis. That move sure hurts, but it was the only way of winning.

"Bruises Aplenty Technique!" Cricket screamed while attacking repetitively with his overly-bruised head, smashing Mantis until the master fell on his back.

"His hits are okay, but he can`t take many hits before losing. Maybe it`s his age."

Mona looked at that, and told herself: "That`s not exactly what I meant by "using your head", but that will be okay I guess."

Young Cricket looked at is sensei.

"For once, I have something to teach you. You must not remember why I tell you this, and you will maybe not remember what I tell you right now, but I`ll say it anyway. I don`t have to train on impulses, because it is natural. It`s normal to sometimes do things without thinking. It`s normal to have impulses."

"I will remember it," Master Mantis said with a low voice. "You can all go to the next room."

The rest of the gang passed through the door at the opposite side of the arena. Young Cricket followed them. Mona asked Young Cricket:

"Is this as normal as an impulse?"

And she kissed him on the cheek. Hearts appeared instead of Cricket`s pupils for a second.

"I dunno…"

***

The team passed through a short hallway, until they reached a replica of the Diamond Arcade. Mike was waiting for them in there. Jimmy knew exactly what was going to happen.

"Oh, hi, loser," Mike said, pointing at Jimmy. "Wanna take your revenge?"

"I sure do!" Jimmy said. Penny, the voice of reason as always, tried stopping him.

"You`re not ready, your leg still hurts a little!"

Jimmy pushed her away. "If we do nothing we`re caught here forever. If I lose we all lose, or maybe die. I have to win. But I`m sure he has prepared something. An even faster song, maybe." On this, Jimmy took out of his pockets two energy drinks. He opened the bottles and sipped down the entire content of the two bottles. Jimmy became hyperactive, able to dance at the highest speeds ever. Jimmy ran to his own machine at CDR (Champion Dance Revolution).

"What`sthedeal, dancebot? What`sthesong?"

"Whoa, cool down, loser. You`re speaking too fast. But the song we`ll use is Hardware Store, by Weird Al Yankovic."

"Neverheardofit," Jimmy said.

"You`ll discover it then, loser."

"Bringiton!"

On this, the song began. The machines were settled on Champion difficulty, and that song was way harder than Forest Rawest.

The first part was kinda easy for Mike, and it seemed even easier for Jimmy. The arrows were well-followed by the two dancers. They were going at a high speed, we could almost not see their legs at the speed they were going.

After a while, they got to the chorus. That part was even faster! It was so speedy nobody would have passed it, even if it was on medium difficulty. But Jimmy, over-boosted by the energy drinks, seemed not to care as he still had the highest possible score. Mike had the same score. The chorus passed. The second part began.

Jimmy`s teammates were acclaiming him. They were shouting "Go Jimmy!" "You can do it!" "Never abandon!"

The second part passed and the chorus (which was actually the same chorus as before but twice) also was passed easily by the dancers. Mike turned to Jimmy while dancing and told him: "This time, you`re going down, loser. Even I can`t pass the next part without any mistakes."

"YeahwellIdon`tgivead*mnsobringallyougotandanywayIamhyperboostedandnothingcanbeatmeohmygosh!!!"

The next part was simply impossible. It was impossible to sing, so imagine now if you had to dance on it! Yep, very difficult at Easy, it was impossible at Champion.

The singer began: "Allen wrenches gerbil feeders…" And the legs of the dancers became a real colored fog of legs going in all directions, tapping on all arrows, and this time Mike was no more laughing. Jimmy was faster than any human would ever be on a dance pad. Mike couldn`t believe his eye captors. At one point, Mike`s legs began smoking on the pressure. Damn! His leg motors were burning because of the speed!

The part ended after the singer said "matching salt and pepper shakers". Mike was trying to keep up despite his motors about to burn. The last chorus, which was the first but repeated three times, was the last straight line before the end.

The chorus was sung once. Mike had a lot of problems following. The chorus repeated. Mike was really having problems. At the last repetition of the chorus, Mike fell on the floor, remembering Jimmy of the dance battle that had occurred many days ago. Jimmy, whose speaking speed came back to normal, approached Mike after the song ended.

"You see, Mike, robots are as weak as humans when it comes to superhuman abilities. We have legs, you have motors. If we have no legs, and if you have no motors, it comes to the same result… Now, I can see you are unable of moving, so we`ll just go on."

***

In the next room, there was Orbulon. No big surprise there. Mona knew it was her time. Orbulon presented himself and told them everything about this battle.

"It`s a quiz! Here is how it works: You ask a question, I answer it. If I`m right, I get a point, or else I win nothing. Whatever the result is, I ask you another question, and if you have it right you gain a point. Then, you ask me a question, and so on. The first at 10 points wins."

"Wait, that`s unfair!" Mona shouted. "That means you can have one point before me!"

"Not unless you ask me a question I don`t know the answer…"

Two stands appeared. Mona took the right one and Orbulon the left one. There was a microphone on each.

"I know I`m not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree," Mona said, "but aside from Penny I`m one of the smartest humans in Diamond City. I`m not Marie Curie but I`m not an idiot neither. Let`s go. Question one: What is the distance between Turin and Palène?"

"One thousand three hundred twenty-two kilometers." One point appeared on Orbulon`s stand`s screen.

"My turn. Who is a brilliant pun-making Quebecer humorist who has made over three thousand sketches?"

"François Pérusse." A point appeared on Mona`s stand`s screen. "How is called a polygon with eleven sides?"

After ten minutes, each one had nine points. It was Mona`s turn to ask a question. Mona racked her brain to find a question Orbulon couldn`t answer. She remembered something. Something that happened some days ago.

"What is the meaning of the expression "going bananas?"

Orbulon thought about it. He thought for a minute approximately, and he found no answer.

"Sorry, I don`t know. Okay, my turn to ask you a question now. Is there water on Mars?"

Mona thought for some seconds before answering "No." The last point appeared on Mona`s screen. Orbulon had made up a question based on what no human should know. Only he knew there was zero water on Mars, but she got it right? Plain luck then.

"I won!" Mona ran to her friends. "We can move on to Mario`s room!"

***

They effectively entered in Mario`s room. He was on some kind of throne. "I see you finally reached me. Good job. I don`t think anyone alone would have been able of doing that. Congratulations."

Mona had kept the alarm Wario had given her, and she pushed the button. Now Wario would know where she is exactly.

"Shut up and tell us why you did all that!" Ana yelled. She had not said a thing since her fight with her sister, but it`s because she was harmed. Now the pain was gone and she could talk again.

"First of all, I have to tell you that I didn`t do that because of vengeance. I know Wario stole my castle because of his own desires, actually, my real goal is to put a stop on the Warioware series."

"What?" Everyone said.

"Yes. I`m narcissic at the point of hating anyone from MY universe who starts his own series. I already hate the Yoshis and the Kongs. Now that Wario has had his own game, I wanted to prevent it from continuing."

***

Down there, in the cylinder, Wario received the signal from Mona. He lit up the dynamite and then he packed it up in the dynamite cannon that he had placed in front of his motorcycle. He then pushed the accelerator. He had built a ramp behind his house. He went at full speed, speeding up on the ramp, until he was flying in the air. With that he pushed a button on his motorcycle. Wings appeared from each side of the motorcycle, and reactors appeared behind. Wario then launched the dynamite, which was about to explode. He cannoned it toward the magnifier glass and the dynamite exploded while near the glass, causing a huge hole to appear. Wario passed on his flying motorcycle through the hole. His goal was to land in the Giant Airship. The pieces of glass fell on the grassy field down there.

No cow was crushed to death during the filming of this scene.

***

Up in the airship, Mario was still explaining his motives to the Elite Team 2. However, while the team was watching Mario, Mike, who had been crawling on the floor, reached a lever on the wall. He pulled it, and a big cage fell on the Elite Team 2. On this, Mario said:

"This time, I`ll kill you all, and then I`ll destroy Diamond City."

But as Mario was approaching the cage, a loud explosion occurred on the side of the room and Wario blasted through the big hole, on his bike.

"No more problems, your hero is there!" Wario told his friends.

"HOW DARE YOU!" Mario screamed. "You dare entering the Giant Airship without my permi…"

Wario opened his mouth.

"Ah, shut up, Luigi!"

Everyone looked at Wario.

"WHAT?" They all screamed in unison.

Author`s notes: Ha-ha! Wario would never, ever have mistaken Mario for Luigi or vice versa. It`s the great ending in next chapter. I hope you are all ready for the greatest fight ever!


	11. The Final Battle really, really

I do not own the characters. That`s so bad!

Chapter 10: The Final Fight (Really, Really)

Everyone looked at Wario.

"WHAT?"

"Yes, gang. It`s Luigi disguised as Mario."

Suddenly, Mario`s colors began disappearing. The red faded and turned into a solid green. The M turned into an L and the mustaches on each side of his face melted into one, like Luigi`s. Luigi looked at Wario.

"How did you guess?"

"I didn`t have to guess at all, I know it was you. We know Mario is egocentric enough to go on all quests to save Peach even if he has to leave his bro behind for that. This said, Mario is always on quests against Bowser, which means he would never have time to plan such a thing against a minor enemy of his. It can`t be Bowser for the aforementioned reasons, and it can`t be Peach because she`s almost always captive of Bowser. It couldn`t be Yoshi, he doesn`t have the intelligence, and Donkey Kong doesn`t have the technology."

That explains also the rest of the story. When 9-Volt dueled in SMBB against Mario, Mario would probably have taken his own self. That also explains why Mario looked thinner and taller.

"So you have proven to be smart enough to discover the identity behind all that, eh? Let me tell you the rest. Prof E. Gadd had created a new type of Gaddbrush, which could permit anyone to transform into someone else, however the height and weight of the person doesn`t change. That means that if I would transform into Bowser, I`d still be little compared to him. I stole it from E. Gadd, and then I disguised as a Koopa Troopa to invade Bowser`s Castle. From there I arranged myself to steal everything I needed for my plan. All the helicopters are actually Airships but disguised. I have also taken a brainwash machine which also worked on robots."

Luigi was walking while talking.

"I even know why you did that!" Wario shouted. "You wanted to prove your brother you could fight! You wanted to show him you were a great ally! You were feeling useless so you did that, and only for your own personal profit!"

"Yeah, but Mario is still too busy to even let me star in more games. Like that, he`s still ignoring me, and I HATE THAT! Oh yeah, I almost forgot."

Luigi took out of his pocket a strange remote control, on which there were two buttons, a green one and a red one.

"Listen Wario. This remote control is dangerous, really dangerous. It is the one Bowser used to clear up all Brick Blocks after the first SMB. When the green button is pushed, the blocks explode from lowest to highest, in some kind of dangerous pile-up. Guess what? The entire cylinder is made of blocks! Guess what will happen?"

Wario calculated it for some seconds, but Luigi, apparently not waiting for an answer, decided to spill the beans.

"When I`ll push that button, the entire cylinder will collapse, and you know very well what`s on top: a huge piece of glass. When the cylinder gets destroyed, the glass will crush the entire city! And everyone inside of it. The glass will fall from such a height and with such speed that nothing will survive."

Luigi put back the remote control in his pocket. That was the cruelest plan ever thought of by anyone. Even Bowser would not have been that evil! A look of confidence appeared on Luigi`s face.

"I guess it`s all between you and me, Wario. A fight between the two of us. If I win, then it`s Game Over for your entire city and I`ll send you as slaves to Bowser. If you win, then I pass you the remote control and you do whatever you want with it."

"Deal," Wario said. His employees were looking at him. He had done nothing at all for the entire story and now he was taking the lead role to fight the last enemy? Weird… but that was all planned. Luigi talked again.

"But I must first tell you that I also stole another technology to E. Gadd: some sort of All-around Mushroom which has all the effects of many powerups altogether."

Luigi showed the Mushroom, which was black as coal, and ate it. His entire outfit turned black with red buttons, his gloves turned a dark shade of grey and horns grew on his cap. The only color left on his outfit was the L on his cap, which was now glowing.

Wario looked at that and said: "Wow, I`m lucky I thought about bringing something too…"

Wario took out the Funky Garlic and gulped it down in one bite. His outfit turned into a lousy pajama-like suit with a big, blue W in front, and his cap morphed into an ugly, superhero-like thing. Drawings of garlic appeared on his suit.

"I think we can fight now," Luigi said.

Mona looked at the fight. She and the others were trapped in the cage. Dribble and Spitz had awoken and arrived. Mike, unable to move on his legs, was also watching. The beaten employees also made their way to the main room.

Now, the details of each fighter. Luigi, thanks to his All-Around Mushroom, could throw fire and electricity from his two hands. He had an incredible stamina like Bowser now. He could also jump very high and run at immense speeds. Now, Wario-Man had the exact same powers, without the fire and thunder.

Wario-Man ran toward Luigi, who jumped high. As Wario-Man scratched his butt, wondering where his opponent had gone, Luigi fell on him. The shock was hard. Luigi was about to strike again with a mix of thunder and fire when Wario-Man smashed Luigi away. Wario-Man got back on his feet and jumped on his bike. Luigi ran off toward Wario-Man and blocked him. Luigi threw a series of punches, which Wario-Man avoided easily. Wario-Man just punched Luigi once and the plumber fell on his back. However Luigi got up in a second and ran to the other side of the room to avoid the motorcycle that would be soon rolling toward him. Wario-Man jumped on his bike and rushed toward Luigi, who jumped very high again. The ceiling of that room was made of a metallic grid, so Luigi just moved around with his arms, waiting for the best moment to fall down on his enemy.

Wario drove his motorcycle around the room, seeking Luigi, when the plumber fell right on him. Wario lost the control of his bike, destroyed the throne and some decorations, and they crashed in a wall. On this, Luigi`s remote control fell off his pocket. Mona noticed this and told her friends in the cage.

"We have to catch that remote! It`s our only chance!"

But Wario-Man and Luigi`s battle was not finished yet. They each survived the crash, and Luigi attacked once again, throwing fireballs. Wario-Man avoided them, but while doing so, Luigi had thrown a greater fireball, which hit Wario-Man.

It`s impossible to describe the pain Wario-Man felt when he got hit by the big fireball. Wario-Man fell on the floor. Luigi approached. "It looks like I won. Prepare to kiss goodbye to your business, Wario."

But Wario-Man, in a twist of events, woke up and smashed Luigi at the same time. Wario-Man knew he could no more use his motorcycle so he just made a wrestling move and smashed Luigi`s stomach. Luigi did his best not to spit out the All-Around Mushroom, and the battle continued between the two enemies.

During this time, Mona and her friends were trying to push the heavy cage toward the remote control. "Just a few feet and we`ll have it."

However Dribble noticed them and he ran to the remote control. "Is dat da thing ya want? Too bad!" Just to laugh at them, Dribble danced around the cage. He arrived in front of Jimmy. "Do ya have it? No! I got it! Yer all losers! Mario, er… Luigi`s da boss! Y`all never get out of here alive!"

Jimmy kicked Dribble`s ankle and the bulldog let the remote control fall off his hand. However, as Jimmy was about to catch the remote, Spitz ran and caught it first.

The room was now devastated because of the battle between Wario-Man and Luigi, who was back on his feet. Luigi, with his increased stamina, would be able to fight for one more hour. Sadly, Wario-Man was not that great. The fat superhero felt the effects of the huge fireball in his entire body. But it was not time to lose, the fate of hundreds of people was uncertain. So Wario-Man tackled Luigi. That would be the very last move. Wario-Man ran toward Luigi, who was also running. The two screamed before the final punch. Luigi punched Wario-Man, but the hero just caught his enemy`s fist and punched successfully. Luigi was thrown away. In the shock, he spat out the All-Around Mushroom, and reverted to his normal clothing before hitting a wall.

During this time, Ana was trying to attract Spitz toward her. "Come here, kitty kitty, we can`t hurt you, we`re encaged."

"Why should I believe you?" Spitz asked. "Your weapons can easily pass through the bars." Spitz looked again at the remote control. "So much destruction in such a tiny machine… I`m feeling like a god."

"Come on, give that to us!" Penny shouted. Then she got a brilliant idea. "Hey, have you noticed how much Luigi hates you?"

Spitz approached.

"Yes, remember, you`re still a Diamond City resident even if you`re on the enemy side. And Luigi never liked you, he never said how cute you were, he never ever said a thing like that."

"I don`t care, I`m supposed to be ugly since I`m evil."

However, during that time, Wario-Man had also reverted to Wario. Luigi was lying on the ground, not moving anymore. Wario approached.

"Your obsession soon turns you into a monster. I know it, I`ve hunted for gold so often and that was turning me into a freak. Now your obsession into being recognized as much as Mario has sent you into doing evil things. Get out of that way. Look, I was evil first, but I even helped you defeat Bowser the other time!"

"Yeah, maybe you`re right… maybe no!" Luigi screamed, taking out a revolver. "Nice piece of technology, eh? I got that in the "never-of-use" section of Bowser`s artillery. I`ll never know why it`s so useless, looks like a pretty dangerous weapon."

On this, Luigi shot Wario. Wario avoided the ball. Luigi shot three times again, and Wario avoided the hits, however, one of the bullets hit the remote control Spitz was holding. The remote control fell near the cage. Penny took it and made sure it would not get out of the cage again.

Luigi shot again, two times, but Wario had avoided the balls once again. Luigi tried shooting once more, but nothing else was coming out.

"What? Only six bullets? Now I know why this was useless, it`s too easy to avoid! It`s like tiny Bullet Bills!"

On this, Wario was about to attack Luigi so hard he would need three 1-Up Mushrooms to come back to life when Luigi said simply:

"Can I suggest something?"

"Go ahead."

"May I join the Warioware team? I`d appear in a few more games then!"

"If that`s what you need to come back to normal, then okay. I guess I can find an empty spot in the team."

Luigi was about to take the remote control when he noticed it had fallen out of his pocket.

"Where is it?"

Penny showed the remote control through the bars of the cage.

"So you got it, eh? To stop everything, just push the red button."

Penny decided it was instead Wario`s duty to push that button, so she threw the remote to the obese hero, and Wario pushed the red button.

***

A month later…

Mona was on her bike, touring around the city.

The red button`s use was simple: It would not only destroy all brick blocks, but also make the magnifier vanish. It also made all brainwashed employees come back to normal. Now the residents of Diamond City were building back the buildings destroyed by that adventure, and life had come back to normal. The Warioware team had a new member, who now was working on enemy microgames. The concept was in each microgame to defeat a simple enemy in the time laps. No enemies from videogames (since that was 9-Volt`s section), but coming from anywhere.

Mona rolled on her motorcycle. She first went to the young player`s house, and looked through the window. 9-Volt and his friend 18-Volt were playing videogames as always. Luigi had given them the only copy of Super Mario Brotherly Battle ever made. She then went to Kat and Ana`s house. She saw the girls training once again. She learned recently that the preschool-aged girls were now training under Master Mantis as well. She passed in front of Ashley`s Mansion, where she saw the witch and her demon waving at her happily. Actually, only Red was doing this happily. Ashley still had that frozen face that makes her charm. Mona could see earphones coming out of Red`s and Ashley`s ears, the young witch had kept the Mp3vil, much to Red being afraid of it. Mona, on her route toward the Dojo, she met Dribble and Spitz, who were driving Dr. Crygor to the school where they were going to see Penny Crygor. Mona arrived at the dojo, and knocked at the door. Master Mantis answered.

"Are you coming to see my student? I heard recently that you and he had begun a fine and solid relationship. I am sorry at every level, lady Mona, but at this exact moment my student is training."

"Is his head okay, Sensei?"

"Yes, his overly bruised head came back to normal. He has found back all his original beauty. But that is an old man`s opinion, I guess a young lady can have a better opinion than mine at beauty."

"That`s fine to hear. Thanks, Master Mantis, see you soon!"

Mona passed by the arcade. At Mike`s demand, the Karaoke videogame had been added. Now Jimmy was dancing on Champion Dance Revolution while Mike was singing the song the dancer was performing. They were a very popular duo at videogames. That was great to see, when we know some weeks ago they had dueled in a terrible speed-dancing battle. The rest of the Thang Family was looking at them.

Penny Crygor was outside the school, with her uncle and the cab drivers around. She waved at Mona, who just passed by. Finally, Mona passed in front of Wario`s house. She knew Wario was not the kind of guy going outside very often, so she didn`t even knock at the door. Wario was picking up his nose in front of the television, on which was airing a rerun of Ear Candy.

Finally, Mona passed near Luigi, who was raking leaves in front of his own fake Toad House in Diamond City. He simply lifted his thumb at her. All his negative feelings seemed to have disappeared. He was smiling.

***

That night, it was another Warioware meeting. Wario asked each employee why their microgames weren`t ready yet. Ashley explained she was searching as many songs as possible for download on her Mp3vil. Mike and Jimmy were preparing for a tourney around the city in a karaoke-dance show. Kat and Ana had been training under Master Mantis and his next training was quite rough, their arms were tired. No matter what they all said, Wario was expecting a lot of his new employee Luigi. When the plumber`s time came, Luigi said sorry. Wario asked why.

"Well, recently Bowser launched a huge attack on the kingdom and Mario needed my help that time. It doesn`t happen very often but he was really too tough that time."

Wario was about to explode with anger when he tried calming down. But too late. Just like at the very beginning of that story, Wario fell on the ground, crying like a baby, hitting the floor, and insulting his employees.

Once again, the employees left without a word. Once outside, Luigi told them:

"I know what will calm him down."

***

The next day, Wario woke up from his creaking bed. He opened the window without even looking outside. He put toasts in the toaster and took the garlic butter out of the refrigerator. After breakfast, he put on his biker clothes and decided to go out. He opened the door, and passed through, but he hit a wall of smaller blocks. That reminded him of last month`s adventure.

"Very funny guys."

Wario walked around his house, noticed the wall was surrounding it, and Wario screamed:

"VERY FUNNY GUYS! Now get me outta here. Please? Come on, it`s free! Okay, I`m sorry. Did you hear me? Guys?"

THE END.

Author`s notes: Phew… finally finished. That was probably the most complicated story I`ll ever have to write. I bet even my original stories won`t be that complicated. Maybe because there will be less characters… I dunno. Anyway, the next chapter is the answers to the "find the references" game.

By the way, if you`re still interested in my original story, or just to hear about it for fun, just Private Message me.

…not unhappy that saga is finished…


	12. Game Results: References

I do not own the characters nor any series, song or whatever mentionned in this chapter.

Game Chapter: References

All-Fanfic References:

-The giant cylinder is based on the dome from the Simpsons Movie. Let`s not mince words, blocks are still way more resistant.

-Even though Diamond City is supposed to be in Mushroom Kingdom, and this is on another universe or planet, they still know about many earth things, which makes it difficult to separate the true from the fake.

Chapter 2:

-In Mona`s part, she reference every time Pizza Dinosaur tried harming her in the many Warioware games.

-"Bobo", the word said by Young Cricket after his fall off the wall, is a foreign word which I also heard sometimes in English, strangely… I dunno if you heard it before, but it means something like "it hurts".

Chapter 3:

-Champion Dance Revolution is a spoof of Dance Dance Revolution.

-Forest Rawest is a song made by a Newgrounds user and which talks about Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. This is the first of a series of references to the Mario world. That makes sense since Diamond City is located somewhere in the Mushroom Kingdom.

-A lock-out is when a boss prevents his employees from working. If there`s one thing I learned from my Economy classes, that`s it.

-"Shimatta-baka-ni" is the Japanese for "D`Oh", and that word comes from the Simpsons series. Homer pronounces it once when they travel to Japan.

Chapter 4:

-Of course, Goomba Blood is from Goombas, and Goombas are from the Mushroom Kingdom.

-The scene where Mike, on a giant television, talks to the residents, is a spoof on some scenes of the Simpsons Movie, where Russ Cargill talks to Springfield thanks to a TV integrated in the dome.

-Cricket swears in Quebecer after the TV falls down. Believe me when I say he`s got plenty of choice. There are videos of "Quebec-swearing lessons" on Youtube. If you`re interested, go look at them.

-Dunning is the boss of the hotel. And Orbulon is in Room 215, which supposedly grants wishes. All this is a huge reference to Hotel Dusk: Room 215.

-Orbulon mentions Xananabs, an alien species looking like bananas and which appear in the Donkey Kong series.

-The old Batman theme plays at one point.

-When Kat and Ana fiddle with the analyzer in Orbulon`s piggy ship, the machine goes awry and breaks down. "Yaddayadda" and "Can`t figure any lyrics out" are lyrics from Smells like Nirvana, by Weird Al Yankovic. "Stee" is a Quebec swear really not well-written, but that`s how an English person who would never have heard it would pronounce it.

Chapter 5

-There are some references to Tabuu and the Subspace Emissary by Penny and Ashley. That means they have played it since they know the last boss. Or maybe it`s Wario who told them.

-9-Volt owns a Wii. He`s up-to-date for sure!

-The videogame`s plot reminds of a TV show, Prison Break.

-Even though Master Mantis is watching the videogame with the others, he`s at his Dojo when Mona arrives there. Teleportation? Mental powers? Who knows? Apparently, Young Cricket was already practicing for nearly an hour when Mona arrives. That means he had begun even before Master Mantis was gone to look at 9-Volt`s game.

In-Between:

-Mike is accompanied by three Goombas, two Koopa Troopas and a Hammer Bro. It is speculated whether they are from Bowser`s army or if Luigi has reunited them from peaceful villages.

-Mike`s new theme is a parody of Toxic Love, by Hexxus, from the cartoon movie Ferngully.

-Mike sucks up energy from all sources. Even from hydroelectricity, a special way that uses turbines to produce electricity with the water currents. The fact that all energies are used makes the city quite difficult to situate on the Mushroom Kingdom map.

Chapter 6

-The Gooper Roblooper is a robotic version of the Gooper Blooper, a giant Blooper found as a boss in many Mario games.

-Airships appear in Super Mario Bros 3 and Mario Galaxy. The concept of a Giant Airship never appeared in any game, however. They`re already big enough.

-Super Mario Brotherly Battle is hugely based on the first Super Mario Bros, but with one more challenge, the fight between the two brothers. Man I wish that game would be real…

-The Naruto VS Sasuke fight is referenced. That happens at the end of the Sound Four arc in the fifth season.

-Ana mentions the Ouch-he-was ninja family, which is just the Uchihas (from Naruto), but not well-pronounced.

-Ashley mentions that Red is her subject experiment for her potions, and her scepter when she needs it. That references her story in Smooth Moves.

-The moves used by Master Mantis and Young Cricket remind the Naruto moves and the way they are told remind of Bo-bobo Bobobobo (I dunno the correct spelling).

Chapter 7

-Ashley breaks the fourth wall in the jail, inside the Giant Airship. I am the narrator but nobody knows it in the story (that means I have the full control, and the fact that it all ends well makes me a nice narrator, hehe)

Chapter 8

-The Mp3vil player is a pun on Mp3 and evil. The lyrics heard coming out of it are from System of a Down`s "B.Y.O.B." and Voltaire`s "When You`re Evil". Hard rock and gothic music, that`s right.

-Red`s powered up appearance looks a lot like how people imagine Lucifer.

Chapter 9

-Mike defies Jimmy at Hardware Store, another song by Weird Al Yankovic. That song is really impossible to sing. So imagine dancing on it!

-François Pérusse is mentioned in the quiz between Orbulon and Mona. She apparently knows him, which is weird… I mentioned him in my profile. If you`re interested, look on Youtube.

-Mona`s line "I`m not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree" comes from Weird Al Yankovic`s "Genius in France". She also mentions Marie Curie.

Chapter 10

-In the battle between Luigi and Mario-Man, Luigi moves on the ceiling thanks to some bars. That is a technique in Super Mario 64.

-The fact that the motorcycle was impossible to control when Wario-Man was on it is a reference to Wario`s Final Smash in Super Smash Bros Brawl: Wario turns into Wario-Man. However, if Wario-Man takes his bike, he goes way too fast, and thus out of control.

If you got under 10 references, then you didn`t search at all: at least 12 were evident since told right away in the story.

If you got between 10 and 20 references, then you did a good job. You know a lot of things, you`re good. That means you may have searched through my user profile as well and in my past stories.

If you got between 20 and 30 references, then you`re really great. You`re a Mr. or Mrs. Know-it-all, but that was some kind of requirement for that game.

If you got over 30 references: Ay Carumba! You`re a real master! Are you my clone? Well, I`ll be a clone`s uncle! Some were almost impossible to find!


End file.
